


Legacy

by Reader115



Series: Promise series [9]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 11:53:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reader115/pseuds/Reader115
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Begins 2 years after 'Excursions' - Familiar faces appear as new information emerges about Akito and Machi's birth family. 7th story in a continuation series. Warning: Fluff and T-cest. I don't own the turtles. </p><p>Originally posted on FF site from Oct 11, 2015 - Nov 10, 2015</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Raphael tromped through the forest, doing his best to ignore the creatures that made his skin crawl with their buzzing sounds. It was irritating that even though it was late fall, the bug population was still going strong on their island. Even more irritating was the amused look on Donnie's face as he had tried to explain to Raphael why there were still so many bugs here. They'd made several trips to the island since their initial visit over the past two years and so far, Raph's personal favorite season for a visit was winter. Sure they couldn't swim and almost everyone else thought it was too cold to spend much time outside the house, but at least there weren't any bugs.

He stopped and looked at the trees and bushes around him. Someone had clearly been through here earlier, and they hadn't done a great job covering their tracks. And since he was pretty sure he knew who that someone was, he willing to bet he was walking right into a trap. He grinned and kept moving anyway.

Further into the forest, a thorny branch caught his arm and he cursed loudly at the long scratch marks that were left on his bicep. The thorns had scratched right through Leo's mark and Raph stopped walking to scowl and examine the damage. After a few moments, he was satisfied that once the scratches healed, there wouldn't even be a scar, but he still hated anything interfering with the mark that Leo had given him.

Speaking of his mate, Raphael lifted his eyes from his arm and scanned the forest in front of him. He could sense Leo nearby but couldn't see him anywhere.

Suddenly, there was a slight movement of the air and a quiet thud behind his shell. His arms were pulled behind him as his knees were knocked forward and he landed with a loud thud on his plastron on the leaf-covered ground.

"You don't even try to walk quietly," a voice whispered into his ear. "You are the loudest ninja on the planet."

Raph chuckled silently as he heard the combination of affection and reprimand in Leo's voice and didn't struggle as he felt Leo's solid weight on the back of his pinned shell. He felt Leo kiss the side of his neck before his arms were released. Leo pulled him up by his shoulders and onto his knees before he released him completely. He walked around to the front of the kneeling Raphael and ran a hand down the side of Raph's face.

"I think you lost this game on purpose," Leo said down to him with narrowed eyes.

Raph stared back up at him with amused eyes but managed to keep a grin off his face. His eyes traveled down Leo's body and one of his hands reached out and trailed a finger down Leo's thigh towards his knee.

"Uh uh. Losers don't get to touch."

Raph bit back a growl as his hand was batted away from the muscular legs he was so fond of. He did lose this game on purpose, not that he was about to admit that to Leo right now, but only because he wanted some alone time with Leo while everyone else was busy. He hadn't counted on Leo forbidding him from touching him. He watched as Leo circled back behind him and scowled again when Leo pushed his shoulders forward, forbidding Raph from twisting around.

Leo smiled down at the back of the still and begrudgingly submissive Raphael. He could tell Raph was getting aggravated, but he could practically feel the excitement that was also rolling off the emerald turtle.

He placed his hands lightly on Raph's shoulders before he let his hands move slowly down Raph's arms, stopping occasionally to massage over his favorite muscles. He walked back around to the front of his still kneeling turtle and dropped to his own knees in front of him so that he could easily kiss him.

The kiss was met eagerly as Raphael was already feeling a great need to touch Leo in any way that he possibly could. He tried to reach his hands forward to land on Leo but once again they were batted away and he was forced to keep his arms at his sides.

Leo pulled away from the kiss and smiled again at Raph's obvious frustration. He hoped Raph would re-think throwing their game so easily in the future. There had been something incredibly enticing in knowing that Raph was hunting him through the forest while he was hunting Raphael in return. It wasn't as much fun when Raph stomped noisily through the foliage, cursing loudly at both insects and branches that dared to touch him.

He rose to his feet and circled back around to Raph's shell, smirking as he saw Raph's hands bunch into fists. He leaned down to whisper into the side of Raph's face, his lips brushing against the skin as he spoke softly.

"Since you clearly need practice on how to be quiet, let's play a new game," he said, reaching down and gripping Raph's tail in his hand. He heard another sharp inhale from Raph. Leo continued as his fingers stroked down Raph's tail. "So I am going to touch you and you are going to remain completely silent."

Raphael tried to focus on Leo's whispered words as he felt those fingers move up and down his tail. It wasn't in his nature to be silent, especially when Leo's hands were groping him, and he cursed himself for literally stomping right into this game.

But those thoughts left him as Leo's fingers pinched his tail and he felt a churr rise up his throat.

Leo churred back at him in response, willing to forgive the involuntary noise they both made. "Any _voluntary_ noise from you and I will immediately stop whatever I am doing," he said next. "So, do you want to play with me?" He let his tongue trail over the back of Raph's neck, exactly where he typically traced his fingers, and listened to Raph's sharp inhale.

Despite his aversion to silence, Raph knew there was no question about whether or not he wanted to _play_ with Leonardo. He turned his head towards Leo's face and nodded.

Leo pinched his tail again and Raph blew out another sharp exhale.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Leo asked in a low tone.

Raph wasn't sure if answering Leo's questions would count as making too much noise so instead of opening his mouth to respond, he wiggled his tail between Leo's fingers.

Leo smiled again and finally pulled Raphael up to his feet. He released Raph's tail and let both hands slide up and down one of Raph's arms as he reached his tongue out to trail over Raphael's bicep.

"What did you do?" Leo murmured as he came across the scratch marks ripping through his mark.

His tongue traced over the scratches and Raph bit back yet another groan of pleasure. He panted out loud breaths and scowled at Leo when Leo pulled his tongue away and raised an eye ridge. He shut his mouth and forced his breaths through his nose, which was admittedly quieter although not as satisfying.

He scowled harder at Leo's sudden smug smile.

Satisfied, Leo returned his tongue to trailing over Raph's arm as one hand moved down to rub across Raph's slit. He listened to Raph's admittedly loud breaths through his nose as a bulge began to form in Raph's lower plastron.

"Can't be too hard to keep quiet if this is getting hard so easily, huh Raphie?" Leo purred at him as he shifted his body so that his mouth could reach Raph's neck.

Raph squeezed his eyes shut and bit back a groan as a shiver ran through him. That was pretty much as close as it came to dirty talk from Leonardo and it figured he'd pull it out when Raphael wasn't allowed to say anything back. His fists tightened as he once again forced them to stay at his sides. And he even remained quiet when he felt Leo's mouth leave his neck as Leo dropped to his knees once again and began trailing his tongue over his slit. He dropped down only a moment later and let a string of curse words fly through his head as he was pulled into Leo's warm mouth.

Leo's hands gripped Raph's muscular thighs as his amused blue eyes rose to watch the emerald face scrunch in what he was sure was equal parts pleasure and frustration. He was glad Raph was so willing to play along with this game, but he realized he was missing the sounds he normally earned from his favorite turtle.

He refocused on his efforts to pull Raphael towards his throat as Raph's musky scent filled his nose. He let himself moan loudly and listened to Raph's loud exhale in response. He pressed Raphael to the roof of his mouth as a churr rolled up his throat and his fingers tightened around Raph's legs to help steady him as he felt Raphael tip over the edge to his release.

Raph's hands shot out and grabbed hold of Leo's shoulders to support himself as his legs began to shake and he suddenly roared out Leo's name, completely unable to keep in the loud shout.

The game of silence was momentarily forgotten as Leo couldn't help but be pleased to hear Raphael screaming his name. He tightened his mouth around Raphael until Raph's convulsions stopped and then smiled as he watched Raphael collapse down on his shell on the ground.

"Ya drive me crazy, Leo," Raph panted.

Leo rolled to his own shell and settled down next to Raphael. He looked over at him and waited until those green eyes met his. "I want you to actually _hunt me_ next time," he said in a dark voice.

Raph felt another churr rise up his throat as the sound of Leo's husky voice and sight of those blue eyes staring hard at him. And for the first time since Leo had proposed the initial hunting game, Raph realized that Leo had been looking forward to being hunted through the forest. By him. He was beginning to think about another round when he heard someone approaching them.

The sound of footsteps was quickly replaced by an exasperated sigh.

"Did you seriously forget that you sent the _entire team_ out here on this little training exercise?" Donnie asked them, clearly agitated over finding his brothers panting on the ground where anyone could've come across them. He figured he should at least be thankful for his good timing.

"Of course not," Leo said, making zero effort to lift himself off the ground. "I just thought I'd hear you coming."

"None of us are as loud as Raphael."

"Thanks Donnie," Raph said, grinning over at him.

"That wasn't a compliment," Donnie growled, turning away from them. "I'm counting this as finding both of you and going back to the house."

Leo watched Raph smirk over at him as Donnie left.

"So, am I allowed to touch you now?" Raph asked. He wasn't ready to sit up yet but began to reach his hand over to grab Leo.

"Sure," Leo said, moving his arm away before Raphael could get a hold of him, "as soon as you find me."

Raph growled as he watched Leo move completely out of his reach once again. His mate was off the ground, into the trees and out of his sight in the next moment.

"Alright, Leo. Huntin time," he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I don't know why I like teasing Donnie so much. I just do. Can't help it.


	2. Chapter 2

He nuzzled his face into the green neck that would now hold a mark from his teeth. He didn't normally bite Leonardo, but after hunting him down through the forest and claiming him in some bushes, the animalistic urge to hold him in place with his teeth during his release had taken over. And the sound Leo had made with the bite was intoxicating. No wonder Leo always latched onto his neck.

He listened to Leo's panting breaths beneath him and felt Leo's hands tighten around his biceps.

"If you weren't such a damn good ninja, I would've found ya sooner. And we could've done this sooner, too."

"Where's the challenge in that?" Leo murmured back to him. His fingers tightened around Raph's arms again, forbidding him from moving just yet. He loved the feeling of Raph's warm body pressing him into the cold dirt. His nerve endings still felt like they were on fire and he was enjoying even the simple tingling sensation he was experiencing from having Raph's face pressed into his neck, allowing each of Raph's panting exhales to warm him.

"Yer already mine," Raph rumbled. "I don't need a challenge." He was immediately rewarded with a laugh from Leo and enjoyed the sound as much as he enjoyed the vibrations from Leo's neck against his face. "But that was kinda fun."

He could've stayed there the rest of the day and was seriously thinking about it when he felt raindrops begin to hit his shell. He nuzzled Leo's neck one more time before slowly pulling himself up. The air was already pretty cool and he wasn't about to keep Leo out in a cold drizzle. He pulled Leo up with him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they began to walk back towards the beach house. He didn't fail to notice the smirk he got from Leo in return for his efforts.

The last thing Leo wanted to do was move, but he enjoyed the warm arm around his shoulders and his mind wandered to the rest of their group. He'd given them a time limit for their game and it was probably time to go back and make sure everyone else had been found.

Raph watched Leo as they walked and admired the way Leo was able to side-step most wayward branches despite the fact that he was keeping his eyes on the ground in thought.

"Don't you think we should just move here full time?" Leo asked suddenly.

Raph squeezed the fingers he had wrapped around Leo's shoulder. "I know this is yer favorite place, but the only reason you want to move here is to avoid what's comin back home."

Leo looked guiltily back at Raphael. He stopped moving and stared back out into the trees. "I don't want him to do it. I'm not ready."

Raph let the arm he had wrapped around Leo's shoulders fall and grabbed hold of Leo's hand instead while he ran his other hand down the side of Leo's face in order to bring Leo's attention back to him. "You say yer not ready. You don't say he's not ready. Cause ya know he is. He has a great sensei and its time to put those skills to use. Just like we did."

"We weren't trained to run patrols. We were trained to defend ourselves. We went topside that first time for fun and got sucked into protecting the world from the Kraang. We almost didn't have a choice."

"Ya don't believe that," Raph said, tipping his head at Leo. "We did go topside that first time for fun. But our paths were always headed towards helpin people. Why else would we have continued patrols after the Kraang and Shredder were gone?"

Although frowning, Leo nodded at Raph's words. "Maybe. But, Raph." He stopped speaking again, struggling with organizing the thoughts that had been running through his head almost non-stop for the last few months. Ever since Akito had first approached him about joining patrols.

Raph watched Leo think. The rain was coming down harder now and Raph could see Leo's breath coming out in white puffs thanks to the drop in temperature, not that Leo seemed to notice. Raph pulled them under a nearby tree to at least gain some protection from the downpour.

"You don't wanna see him get hurt," Raph said.

"I trained him to protect himself," Leo said. His eyes returned to Raph's eyes. "But, Raph, wouldn't you rather see him go do something normal? And, yes, not _dangerous_? Even if it meant returning to live in his original dimension where he could go to college and get a job?"

"You'd rather he _leave_ then follow our paths?"

"No, no," Leo said, releasing Raph's hand so he could rub both his hands down his face. He sighed and glanced at Raph again. He saw a lot of things whenever he looked in those green eyes, but love and support usually topped the list. "This is going to sound crazy, Raph, but have you ever thought about meeting with Akito and Machi's birth parents?"

"Their dead birth parents?" Raph asked, tipping his head again, trying not to narrow his eyes at Leo since his mate looked nervous enough already.

"Not like right now. Or even here, exactly. But later. When we're – when we're -,"

"Dead?" Raph supplied, his face twisting at the thought.

Leo nodded. "I always thought that they might want to meet us. And if they did, I'd want them to have been-," Leo stopped again and paused. There were a million words and emotions for what he hoped the kids' birth parents would be feeling in response to the job that two ninja turtles had done in raising their children.

"Proud," Raph said, softly. He had to admit, he'd never given much thought to the kids' birth parents. And not because he didn't care about them, but mainly because he was pretty busy in the actual raising of the little foxes. But he suddenly wasn't surprised that Leo had had some apparently deep thoughts about what those parents might have to say about how their children had been brought up.

"I want the best for Akito and Machi," Leo said. "I know you do too, but I feel like we were entrusted with these kids and I don't want them just _falling_ into our path just because it's our path." His eyes searched out Raph's eyes again.

Raphael wrapped his arms around Leo and pulled him into his plastron. "Those kids are Hamatos," he murmured. "What's best for them has always been to be with us. And Akito can see the value in doing what our clan does. He's choosin his own path. But we're gonna be right there with him. Because _that's_ what we've been entrusted to do, Leo. Love him and guide him and protect him."

Damn that sounded sappy. But Raphael held tight to Leo and waited for a response. For a few moments he heard nothing but the sound of the rain hitting the leaves above them, and he began to wonder if maybe he'd said the wrong thing. Or maybe Leo thought he didn't get what Leo had been trying to say. He chewed on his lower lip as he tried to think of something else to add to his previous words.

"Raphael," Leo whispered suddenly as he pulled his face back so he could look into the eyes of his favorite turtle. "Do you know how fucking perfect you are?"

Raph blinked. Well. That certainly was not the response he'd been expecting. But he'd take it.

"Do you know how lucky we all are to have _you_?" Leo continued. He no longer asked or wondered how Raph was able to get into his head and straighten out his jumbled thoughts. He now took it as a given that it was a special skill Raph had either been born with or had honed when they were small children. "I honestly couldn't do any of this without you."

Raphael stared back at those blue eyes before pushing Leo's shell into the wide tree trunk behind him. He pressed his lips hard against Leo's mouth. Leo returned the kiss easily and reached up to cup the sides of Raph's face with his hands.

Raph kissed him to let Leo know how much he needed him as well. He kissed him until the lump in his throat from Leo's heartfelt words began to go away.

"I just follow where you lead, Fearless," Raph whispered to him as he kept his eyes shut but rested their foreheads together.

"You say that Raphie," Leo whispered back, "but I'm pretty sure I've been following you forever."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I originally posted this story, I had someone ask me how old the turtles are now. So I'm going to include those notes here as well:
> 
> The turtles are now 35 years old. They were 19 in 'Promise' and to be honest I've spaced the stories apart for two reasons. The first is that each story typically has some angst/injury/drama and I like the idea that the family gets to love, heal and live peaceful and happy lives in between my throwing curveballs at them.
> 
> So yes, they're in their mid-30s, but since they're kick-ass, mutant ninja turtles, a little age can't hurt em, so don't worry!
> 
> And the other reason I've timed these stories out (and made specific notes about doing so instead of just letting time pass without marking it) is because I've included a new generation of kids in the Hamato clan and (unlike TV cartoons where the kids in the families never age) these kids are aging and I kind of needed them to age just so I could get here – where Akito has been raised in the loving environment of the Hamato family and is nearing adulthood at a pace much faster than Leo or Raph would like.
> 
> So Akito is now 16, Machi is 12, Shadow is 10 and Gabriel is almost 3. They grow so fast, amirght? Makes me sad too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally written as a chapter for this story, although I later pulled it out to also be included as a one-shot called "Complicated". You may have read it before because I've previously posted it on this site.

Michelangelo had been seventeen years old when he first met Woody. He'd placed an order and given the pizza place one of the addresses they typically used to pick up pizza, a currently abandoned apartment building due to serious damage by Kraang antics. Mikey had found an old doormat and spray painted the words " _Under Here_ " on it and their usual delivery guy knew the drill. He'd leave the pizzas inside the main front door and find the money tucked under the doormat placed outside apartment 1A.

But Woody was the new delivery guy that day. And he didn't pay attention to doormats. And he'd been shocked to think that anyone could actually live in the abandoned, leaky apartment building. And he wondered if whoever was here actually needed more than just pizza. Maybe they needed help. So he'd knocked on apartment 1A's door until Mikey had finally said, "Dude, look down," in an exasperated tone.

Mike had been hungry and wanted the guy to just take the money and go away. He needed to get the pizza home before it was cold. They'd just spent the night rescuing Raphael from Shredder's mind control worm and Mikey knew some pizza would cheer the big guy up.

Woody did finally look down and grinned when he saw the words painted on the doormat. He lifted it and found the money, with tip, tucked underneath it. He folded the money and put it in his pocket.

"Do you, uh, do you need anything else?" Woody had called out. He liked the sound of this guy's voice. He sounded like he was close to Woody's age and the thought of someone else being left alone in the wake of a Kraang tragedy pulled at Woody's chest. He'd lost his parents the year before when their apartment building had crumbled beneath some large Kraang machinery. He was lucky he still had his sister, Sadie. He took a deep breath as the sadness that plagued him from losing his parents hit him and glanced around the building hallway once again. He hated the thought of someone being here all by themselves.

"I'm good, dude," Mikey had responded, tilting his head in thought. Delivery guys didn't tend to ask if they needed anything else with that kind worry in their voices.

Woody had nodded even though the guy behind the door couldn't see him. "Okay, then," he said. He supposed he should move on. This was his new job, a way to help Sadie with the burden of suddenly providing for both of them, and he had other deliveries to make. "You call if you need anything."

Michelangelo could hear that it was a sincere offer. And after the day he and his family had just had, it made Mikey smile again.

* * *

Woody pulled the money from the welcome mat but knocked on the door anyway.

"You having a good night?" he called through the door.

Mikey raised an eye ridge and smiled. Now that the new guy knew about the door mat, he figured he would've just taken the money and left. He was surprised the guy still wanted to say hello.

"Great night, dude. How bout you?"

"I'll be better in an hour when I'm off work," Woody responded.

"Big plans tonight?" Mikey asked. He wasn't sure why he was asking. Leo would be pissed if he knew he was carrying on a conversation. But the delivery guy couldn't see him, so Mikey didn't see the harm.

"I'm gonna try to talk my sister into playing some 'Mario Kart' with me."

"Oh! I love that one!" Mike said. "Hey, did you see the new 'Call of Duty' is coming out soon?"

Woody laughed. "Yeah, 'Advanced Warfare', I can't wait for that one, either. I bet there'll be a line out the door for it, though."

"Yeah, I'll probably have to wait until the hype dies down before I get to try it," Mikey said. "But that'll be a great day."

Woody laughed and then paused for a moment. "You doing okay in there?" You need anything else?"

"Naw, dude," Mikey said.

Woody turned to go, but stopped. "Hey, you know these orders don't come with a name."

Mikey paused. The Donnie voice in his head told him to make one up.

"It's Mikey," he said.

"Woody," Woody responded quickly.

"Have a good night gaming, Woody," he said.

"Till next time, Mikey."

Mikey stood on the other side of the door and smiled when he heard Woody say his name. He immediately had no regrets about the decision to ignore the Donnie voice.

* * *

He didn't think much of these short discussions at first, because in general, Mikey was friendly with everyone. Hell, he would've invited the Kraang over for a meal and maybe a lesson in English grammar if they hadn't been trying to take over the planet. But by the third or fourth meeting with Woody, Mikey realized that he was really looking forward to each conversation, even if they were brief. He quickly volunteered to pick up every pizza order, even if their group was in the middle of a video game competition. It earned him a few strange looks but he didn't volunteer any information.

It was the first time he'd ever kept a real secret from his brothers.

* * *

"Got your pizza, Mikey," Woody said, knocking on the door. He put the pizza boxes down carefully and pulled the cash from under the doormat.

"Thanks, dude," Mikey called out.

"I wish I could stay longer but another guy called out sick and I have double the orders to deliver," Woody said, bummed himself that he had to deliver and run.

"No problem, dude," Mike called out cheerfully, although he realized that he was slightly disappointed.

"But I threw in a dessert with your pizza," Woody said, smiling. "I'm gonna want to know next time if you liked it."

Mikey opened the door after he sensed that Woody was gone. He leaned down to pick up the pizzas and perked up when he saw the plastic bag on top of the square cardboard boxes. He gingerly picked it up by the handles and peered inside to see what Woody had picked out for a surprise dessert.

A huge smile spread across his face as he pulled out a brand new copy of _Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare_.

* * *

The next time Woody knocked on the door, he didn't even say hello first.

"How far did you get?" he called out.

Mikey laughed at the immediate ease he had somehow gained with this friendly stranger.

"I made it all the way through," he responded, quickly.

"What? No way."

"Yes way," Mikey said. "I have mad skills."

"We should play together. You need to show me these skills. I'm nowhere near close to beating this one."

Mikey laughed and secretly wished that he could do just that.

"Hey! What is this?"

Mikey smiled again as he realized Woody must've finally lifted the welcome mat.

"You said you've never read that series," Mikey said. He couldn't run out to a store and buy a cool present to repay his new friend for the video game gift. But he could share his beloved comic series with him. "I expect a full report on how awesome you think it is by our next meeting."

"Mike, this is – this is incredible. Thanks, dude. I know what I'll be doing tonight after work."

Mikey smiled again as they said goodbye.

* * *

"Where the _hell_ have you been, Mike?"

Woody's typically calm voice echoed loudly through the mostly empty, crumbling building.

Mikey swallowed from where he sat in the apartment with his shell pressed against the door.

Well, he'd been stuck in medieval England and then Japan of approximately seventeen or so years in the past. He wasn't sure exactly. He wasn't good at math. He'd seen his sensei as a human. And witnessed his father's most tragic life moment.

But he couldn't say all that out loud.

And what had been just a few days to him and his brothers had felt like three month's time here in the present. He wasn't sure why that was. Again, math wasn't his thing. But Master Splinter, April and Casey had been frantic when they'd walked through the entrance of their home yesterday. They'd hugged their father without words. All four of them, while April and Casey had stood back and waited for an explanation. None came last night. They just held onto their dad until he also stopped asking questions and just hugged them back in return.

And by the frantic tone in Woody's voice, it sounded like his favorite pizza delivery guy had been just as worried.

"Sorry, dude. My bros and I went on a little unplanned trip."

Woody frowned. Mikey sounded sad. And Mikey never sounded sad. He placed his hand on the door. His palm flat against the wood. This was the first time Mikey had mentioned brothers, although Woody had to admit that Mike always ordered enough pizza to feed a high school football team. But he wondered why he never heard noises on the other side of the door that would indicate there were others in there with Mikey.

"Did something happen? Are you okay?"

He got silence from Mikey for a response.

"Mike?" Woody called again. He was met with silence again. "Hey, can I come in there?"

It was asked softly. Mike knew Woody was trying not to scare him away. They never talked about why they only spoke through this door. He looked down at his green hands and sighed. He wished he did actually live in this apartment. He wished he could invite Woody inside and just watch a movie with a buddy and forget everything else going on in his life. He could go back to his brothers re-energized before the next Shredder attack so that he was ready to do his part and lift everyone's spirits.

"Fraid not, bro. Mainly cause I don't actually live here," Mikey offered. "I just use the address to pick up the pizza before heading home."

"Oh," Woody said, suddenly relieved to know Mikey didn't live in the dilapidated building. But if _this_ was a good place to pick up pizza, where on earth did Mikey actually live? "Do you live somewhere safer than this then?"

"Sure," Mikey had said, huffing out a small laugh. He faced unsafe situations on an almost weekly basis. But he realized Woody was really worried about _his_ safety. That felt kind of nice actually.

"Well, is there anything you want to talk about?" Woody asked, desperate to get some more elaborate answers out of Mikey.

Yes, Mikey thought. It would be nice to talk about some of this to someone outside the family. But also no, because Leonardo would surely kill him, and also, because he just wanted to forget about some of the things he'd seen in Japan.

"I'm good, dude," Mikey said. "Just need to get the pizzas back." Leo didn't want him coming out here by himself to pick them up after their little adventure in time. Not because he didn't trust Mikey, but because he wanted them to all stay close to each other for the time being. And he had no doubt that all three of his big brothers would come looking for him if he took too long. Mikey had managed to convince Leo to let him go by himself this time because he had wanted this time with Woody. And although they were barely talking today, he was actually starting to feel a little better.

"Okay then."

Mikey could hear the disappointment in Woody's voice.

"Hey," Mike had called out. "I'll be more cheery by next time, dude."

There was silence for a moment and then Mikey heard that sound again. The one that sounded like Woody's hand resting on the door.

"You don't have to be cheery, Mikester," Woody said. "I just like hearing from you."

 _Mikester_. No one had ever called him that before. And there was that tone in Woody's voice. It was sincerity. He didn't require a show from Mikey. He wasn't waiting for Mikey to comfort him. He wanted to comfort Mikey.

Mikey felt the tightness in his chest loosen a little more and he smiled a sincere smile. He let his head fall back against the door. "Thanks, Woody. I owe you one."

* * *

Donnie's genius brain had thankfully returned and saved not only his three brothers but also the citizens of New York from Creepweed. They were cleaning up and heading home when Mikey's nose picked up the distinct smell of pizza. But his smile quickly disappeared when the smell led him to a moped knocked over on the sidewalk with pizzas strapped to the back. It was a pizza delivery guy's ride. A pizza delivery guy from Mikey's favorite pizza place. But the pizza delivery guy was no where in sight.

He quickly made up an excuse to his brothers as to why he wasn't returning to the lair with them and, once they were gone, began searching the nearby pods of trapped humans. He knew he had a limited amount of time before human officials would arrive to try to free the trapped humans and clean up the plant roots blocking the streets, but he wanted to find Woody and free him himself.

He'd never actually seen Woody and suddenly cursed himself for not ever looking out the window when Woody left. He'd always grabbed the pizza from the hallway, jumped out a side window, climbed to the rooftop and taken off for his favorite manhole cover.

He let his nose lead him and quickly came upon a guy wearing a pizza delivery uniform. Donnie would've been proud of his power of deduction, _or was it power of subtraction?_ The _Woody_ nametag was a dead giveaway too. He quickly cut the pod down and pulled it into a nearby alley where he managed to get the sucker open and pull Woody free.

Mikey looked him over as Woody began coughing. He looked to be about his age and he had a head full of cool, curly blonde hair.

"Take it easy, dude," Mike had said. "You just need some fresh air. Well, sort of fresh, this is NYC."

"Mikey?" Woody had asked, immediately recognizing that voice. He did his best to pry his eyes open, although it was a struggle. When he finally got them open, it was too dark in the alley to see much of anything. But he wasnt afraid with Mikey nearby. He continued to cough but managed to rasp out, "What happened?"

"Creepweed tried to turn you into plant food," Mikey said, pulling himself back slightly to remain in shadow.

"Creep-what?" Woody asked.

"It was kinda my fault," Mike continued. "I spilled some stuff. But you're okay, right?"

Woody managed to stop coughing and tried to focus on Mikey, but it was too dark.

"Mike, you okay?" he managed to ask. If he felt this bad he had to wonder if Mikey had been affected as well.

"I'm good, dude," Mikey said, resisting the urge to reach out and squeeze Woody's shoulder.

"I can't see you," Woody said.

"Well, if you did, this would become a little more complicated," Mikey said.

"More complicated than me almost being eaten by a creep-whatever?"

"Way more complicated."

'I don't care. Come over here, please."

* * *

The rest of their family stood huddled together with blankets wrapped around their shoulders to protect them from the wind. Woody wanted to do this on the beach in the fall when it wouldn't be too hot. And Mikey didn't notice the cold air at all as he bounced on his feet and grinned over at his smiling blonde human.

Mikey had proposed this idea to Woody a few months ago and Woody had easily agreed that it sounded like a wonderful idea.

Master Splinter stood between them and asked them to recite their words of commitment to each other. Mikey smiled as he listened to Woody's words, and laughed, along with the rest of their family, when Woody managed to incorporate video gaming into his speech.

"And, Mikester, no matter how _complicated_ this gets, I will always want to be with you," Woody said with a smile.

Mikey grinned and ducked his head, immediately remembering the night he'd revealed himself to Woody in that alley. Woody's eyes had widened, but that had been the extent of his shock. His hand had reached out and gripped Mikey's forearm as he issued a sincere thanks to Mikey for saving him. Woody had insisted that Mikey come over that night for dinner, which had turned into dinner and a long night of talking.

That first night had been followed by several more nights of food and games and movies whenever Mikey was free and Woody's sister, Sadie, was too busy to be home.

They laughed a lot. And the first time Woody leaned over to kiss Mikey in the middle of one of their movies, Mikey hadn't been surprised. Because he'd been thinking about making a move himself.

And today, when it was his turn to speak, Michelangelo took a deep breath. He didn't want this to come out a jumbled mess. He'd practiced hard the night before to get this right.

"Woody," he started, his tone serious enough to get Woody's eyes to immediately lock with his. He paused for another moment and felt Woody's thumb rub across the back of his hand. "I have looked forward to our time together since before we ever even saw each other. I've never met anyone else like you, dude. You're thoughtful without asking for anything in return. And you're funny in a way that makes my stomach hurt from laughing so much. You recognize immediately when I need to be cheered up. And you encourage me to just be myself. And I love you for all of those reasons. And no matter how _complicated_ this gets," he said, smiling because they'd both thought of the same line, "I'll always want to be with you, too."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: If you haven't already, I have a one-shot called 'Secret' which I would read before this chapter.

Leo stood with his arms tucked around Machi as she stood in front of him. She was indulging him, he knew. But he got to hug her while also stealing some body heat from his furry daughter. Raph stood slightly behind him and he'd tucked his chin into Leo's shoulder after wrapping a blanket and his arms around Leo. Raph's warm breath against his neck also took away some of the sting from the cold fall beach winds.

They stood, along with the rest of their family, including Akito and Violet who stood next to them, and watched the heartfelt exchange between Woody and Michelangelo. Leo wasn't sure what he had been expecting out of the two most easy-going and happy members of their family in regards to this ceremony. But he was pretty sure he hadn't been expecting something this touching and emotional. Something that was making him swallow against a lump in his throat. He noticed Raph's hold on him tighten slightly as Mikey spoke and he heard a small sniffle out of his emerald turtle. The big sap.

Years and years ago, when Mikey finally sat his brothers down and nervously told them that he had made a new _friend_ , Leo had been furious that Mikey had revealed himself to a human. Although it figured that Mike would make friends with a pizza delivery guy. But Leo had immediately thought of the last time Mikey had gone out of his way to befriend a human. And he remembered how easily Bradford had taken advantage of Mikey while Mike had thought that they were real friends.

But Mike's shell had straightened at the accusation that Woody was taking advantage of him and his blue eyes had grown determined. He assured them that his friendship with Woody was nothing like his misfortunate experience with Bradford. Leo had been slightly shocked at the time since they rarely saw Mikey turn serious about anything. So he'd begrudgingly agreed to meet Woody. The first meeting had led to several more meetings, always in neutral locations since Leo forbade Mike from bringing Woody to the lair and Woody's sister still didn't know Mikey existed. And Leo had to admit that Woody seemed sincere and friendly in a completely honest way. And the free pizza he handed out whenever they all met didn't hurt either.

Mikey had moved slowly with Woody for his brothers' sakes. Although they'd met Woody almost a year prior, Woody's first visit to the lair had been Raph's nineteenth birthday party, which was after the Shredder was gone and their lives had calmed down. And Leo realized how grateful he was to Woody for coming along and taking such good care of their little goofball. Leo knew Mikey usually hid his feelings when he was sad or upset because he was always more concerned about making sure _others_ weren't sad or upset. But Leo had watched in the past as Woody saw right through Mikey's fake smile. He'd pull Mike aside, work out what was bothering him and Mikey would return with a real smile on his face. Much the same way that Raphael always did for him as well.

Leo leaned back slightly into Raph's plastron, being careful not to disturb Machi for fear that she'd pull away, and felt Raph nuzzle his nose into the side of his neck in return.

* * *

Leo sat in a rocking chair on their second floor deck that evening bundled in the electric blanket Raph had surprised him with for Christmas last year. Cold or not, he still enjoyed sitting outside to listen to the waves. He'd also been given a recording of waves to listen to at home, and while he appreciated the thought, it simply wasn't the same as sitting here enjoying them in person.

He could sense Akito nearby but couldn't see or hear him until the fox swung down from the third floor deck and landed softly in front of Leo.

Leo smirked up at his son in response to the quiet landing. Leo used to tease Akito that his landings were so quiet because his feet were covered in fur. But fur wasn't enough to cover the noise now that Akito was as tall as Donnie and quickly adding muscle mass under Raph's weight-lifting guidance. Akito had learned silence and stealth from Leo and Leo had to admit, the kid was good at it.

Akito grinned back at him and sat in the rocking chair next to him. He remained silent and tried to act casual by rocking the chair back and forth and keeping his eyes straight ahead towards the ocean. It had been months and months since he'd first asked his dad if he could join the Hamato ninjas on patrols. He was sixteen now, already a year older than his dad had been when he began running patrols, and Akito had a strong feeling that he was _behind_. He knew his dad would be hard to convince though. And his pops would go along with whatever his dad decided. They may both be his fathers, but Leo was not only the leader of the Hamato clan, but he was also his sensei and therefore in charge of Akito's actions as a ninja.

But knowing that it would be pointless to try to get his pops on his side to persuade his dad didn't stop Akito from going to his Aunt Miwa to gauge her support. When Miwa had removed the Foot name from her group of ninja and asked if she could call them Hamatos, she'd persuaded Leo to come to her headquarters every day and help her make the transition. Leo had continued to train Akito, Machi, the bunnies and eventually Shadow, but Aunt Miwa had essentially made Leo the co-leader of her ninjas as well and his days were busier than ever training the large group of Hamato ninja and reviewing patrol reports with Miwa.

Thankfully, his Aunt Miwa hadn't been against Akito's idea, but she also knew Leo would take some convincing. So she had nonchalantly suggested that Leo bring his group of young students to the Hamato ninja headquarters, instead of their family dojo, so that they could practice and learn from the more experienced ninja Leo was now also teaching.

Leo had agreed, although he knew what Miwa was doing. He knew Miwa wanted him to see his group of younger students working with the older ninjas. She wanted him to see just how advanced his young students actually were.

That had been months ago and Leo had to admit that Akito and the bunnies were ready. Or as ready as they were going to be from inside a dojo. Machi might even be ready but there was no way in hell he was about to let her patrol any time soon.

And now here they sat, with his son eagerly waiting for him to give his approval.

"You know it's almost December," Leo said, casually. "And winter is a terrible time to patrol. I don't want to hear any complaining because you're cold."

Akito grinned broadly down at his lap.

"Or that you're lost. Because I know that your pops has been secretly quizzing you with street maps of the city."

Akito huffed out a laugh. One day he'd get his dad to tell him how on earth he always seemed to know _everything_.

"And I expect your complete support when Machi complains that she should be allowed to go as well. It'll be years before she goes on patrol. _Years_ ," he emphasized.

Akito nodded eagerly and leaned back in his chair and let the joy of finally being given permission to run patrols roll over him. He grinned over at his dad and watched as his dad tried and failed to smile in return.

"It's going to be great, dad. I can feel it."

* * *

April marked her page in the book she'd been reading in order to pull her hair back into a ponytail as the beach winds picked up the next afternoon. "Are Mikey and Woody sure they don't want to stay an extra few days by themselves when we all leave tomorrow?" she asked.

"They said no," Sadie said.

"Where are they anyway?" April asked. "Miwa and Sam said they'd clean up after lunch so no way they'd stick around for that up at the house."

Donnie laughed and nodded. Although since Mikey had prepared lunch for everyone, it wouldn't have been fair for him to stick around for clean up duty as well.

"I actually heard Woody say he had a headache," Sadie said. "I think he went to take a nap. Mikey probably went with him."

"Hey, have you two ever thought about getting married?" April asked, turning to look at Raph and Leo, both of whom appeared to be basking in the high noon sunlight in their beach chairs. She knew she was throwing the question at them out of the blue but it was something she'd always wondered and now seemed like a good time to bring it up. She watched them both open their eyes in order to smile at each other. "What?" she quickly demanded.

"We did get married," Leo said while still smiling at Raph.

Raph scooted his shell further down into his chair and turned his head to grin at April.

"When did you get married?" Donnie asked, shooting both of them a look of disbelief as he helped Gabe dig through the sand.

"You were there, Don," Raph said, smiling smugly. "Ya don't remember?"

Donnie frowned harder at him.

"That's true. You and Mikey and Master Splinter were all there," Leo added. He leaned towards Raph and muttered loud enough for Donnie to still hear, "Should we be offended he doesn't remember?"

"Probably. He is the family genius," Raph rumbled loudly back. "If _he_ can't remember such an important event, we're all in big trouble."

"I certainly remember _his_ wedding," Leo responded.

The wheels in Donnie's head began to spin as he listened to the teasing from his brothers. If it was only the five of them present at the _wedding_ , then it must've occurred when they were younger, before April and Casey or Woody and Sadie arrived. He watched Leo smirk at him. And it certainly didn't happen during their teenage years when Raph and Leo had barely even been friendly with each other. And if they had all been present but somehow not paying attention to this momentous occasion, then they must have been asleep. Present, but asleep. His thoughts shifted to their first home, which had consisted of only one room and provided the only environment he could think of where he would've been counted as present even if he was sleeping.

"Exactly how old were we?" Donnie asked, tilting his head. "Six?"

"That's way too young to get married," Raph scoffed while Leo huffed out a laugh next to him.

Donnie frowned. "Seven?"

"There ya go," Raph said, pointing a finger at him.

Sadie handed Gabe a bucket and smiled over at Leo and Raph. "You decided at _seven_ _years old_ to get married?" she said to them in awe. "That is so sweet. Honestly, knowing how you two feel about each other, even to this day, that's probably the sweetest thing I've ever heard."

April blinked her own eyes a few times as she looked back and forth between them. She'd met Leo and Raph when they were all teenagers and to say that she'd been shocked when she first found out that they'd decided to enter into a relationship would've been an understatement after all the arguing she'd seen them do as teens. But after watching them together, it hadn't taken her long to quickly fall in love with them as a couple.

"Well, whose idea was it?" she asked them.

Leo smiled and nodded his head towards Raphael.

"Raphael, I'm pretty sure that officially makes you the biggest softy in this whole family," April said.

"Don't tell Casey," Raphael said, tossing sand in her direction.

"Too late, loser," Casey said, plopping down next to Raphael and knocking a bunch of sand on him in the process. "Ya know you gave me some serious ball-and-chain shit right before April and I got married."

"Hey!" April said, glaring over at Raphael.

"And here you were hidin the fact that you'd been a child bride," Casey said. "Ow!" he said a moment later as he rubbed his arm where Raphael had landed a punch.

"Have you thought about repeating your vows in front of everyone?" Sadie asked.

"I think we get enough public displays from them," Donnie muttered as he calculated how wet the sand would have to be for Gabe's sand castle to actually remain standing. He watched as Gabe suddenly stood on his little green legs and stomped triumphantly through their creation with a smile before sitting down to begin digging through the sand again.

"No," Leo said, looping his fingers through Raph's fingers. "I'm pretty sure the first time sealed the deal."

Sadie smiled at them again. "Well, it's still really sweet."


	5. Chapter 5

Leo shifted and felt Raph's arm tighten around his shoulders. He shifted again and waited. Raphael still didn't wake up. Leo rarely woke up without Raphael, inexplicably, waking up as well. He slowly pressed himself away from his emerald turtle and Raph's arm fell away from his shoulder as he sat up in bed. He waited again and watched as Raph still remained asleep.

He let his eyes roam slowly over Raphael's features and found himself smiling despite how tense he was feeling. It was rare that he actually got to see Raphael asleep. He knew Raph always waited for him to fall asleep at night, something they both seemed to find comfort in although they'd never actually discussed it. And Raph seemed to have a built-in sensor that told him when Leo woke up, which Leo also found comforting. He didn't want to wake Raphael on purpose, but he had to admit, he kind of wished Raph was awake now too.

When it was clear that Raph was going to stay asleep, Leo shifted further and climbed out of their bed. He moved silently out of their room and past the suitcases they'd abandoned in the main room when they'd arrived back home from the beach house just a few short hours ago. He slipped out of their apartment and headed up the stairs until he hit the roof of the apartment building.

He did his best to ignore the cold November air and moved to the edge of their rooftop so that he could stare out over the city. He stood unmoving for quite a long time as he watched the city lights and listened to the noises coming from below. His family had worked hard to keep this city safe, despite the fact that most people didn't know they existed. And despite the fact that most people would run screaming in the other direction if they saw them.

And now he was about to entrust this city with his son. He sent a silent message out to the city, asking her to watch over Akito.

He turned as he heard the stairwell doorknob move and watched Raph swing the door open with such force that Leo flinched even before the door slammed against the stairwell entryway.

"Are ya tryin to give me a fuckin heart attack?" Raph growled at him as he stormed his way across the rooftop to where Leo stood.

Leo had to smile at Raphael. There was something about an angry Raphael that Leo found oddly appealing, especially when Raph was angry on his behalf.

"Quit smirkin at me," Raph growled. "You should know better than to just disappear on me like that." He pulled Leo into him and squeezed his arms around him. " _Outside_ is the last place I thought to look for you. It's fuckin cold. " He pushed his face into Leo's neck and shook his head at how cold Leo's skin was. He pulled away from Leo, but grabbed his hand and immediately began to pull him back inside.

Leo dutifully followed Raphael back down the stairs towards their apartment.

"Raph I'm fine. I just needed some air."

"Ya don't have yer T-phone. Didn't even put on a fuckin jacket," Raph mumbled. "Or yer katana for fuck's sake."

"What are you getting so worked up about?" Leo asked, mentally counting the number of curses coming out of his angry turtle as Raph led them back into their apartment.

"You keep the clan safe, but I keep you safe. That's the deal," Raph rumbled at him after he had them both back in their bedroom and shut the door. He turned to eye Leo. "And yer end of the deal includes never leaving here without yer T-phone. I can't believe yer makin me _lecture_ you about the importance of havin yer phone on ya."

Leo crossed his arms and managed to keep the amused smirk he could feel pulling at his lips off his face. His tension from earlier was quickly being forgotten and replaced by a squirming in his stomach as he watched Raph scowl at him

"Deal? Was this a committee vote? Is there a way to repeal my current warden for a new one?"

"Woke up sarcastic, didja?"

Leo watched Raph's green eyes flash at him and he moved slightly closer to where Raphael stood.

Raph let his eyes roam over Leo's body as he felt his own stress and worry decrease now that he had found Leo. He raised his eyes back to Leo's now darkened, lust-filled blue eyes but kept his hands to himself. Leo wasn't getting off that easily after the worry he'd just been through searching the whole goddamn building for him.

"And yer not tradin me in for a new warden, ya jerk. You get all stressed out about something and forget to watch out for yerself. Who else do ya think is gonna want to take care of yer stubborn ass?"

"Well, if I'm stuck with you, maybe you could put yourself to good use and warm me up. I'm still cold."

"Good. Ya deserve to be cold," Raph huffed at him, doing his best to ignore the purr in Leo's voice. He wasn't still all that angry with Leo now that they were in the safety of their bedroom, but he could see that his angry responses were distracting Leo from his stress. And if this was distracting Leo from his current worries, Raph was more than happy to oblige.

He was about to say something else when he realized, a few seconds too late, that Leo was charging him. He landed on his shell on their bed with a loud "Ooof" as Leo landed on top of his plastron and pinned his hands to his sides.

Leo pressed his face into Raph's neck. "You think you're my warden, Raphie?" he asked, pressing his lips against Raph's skin as he spoke. His hands were tight around Raph's wrists, although he knew Raph could break out of this simple hold easily if he really wanted to.

"No," Raph said, dropping his angry scowl. "But I do like takin care of ya. Even if ya can be a handful."

"I'll show you a handful, Hothead," Leo said.

"Jeezus, Fearless" Raph said, barking out a laugh. He struggled slightly against Leo's hold only so he could lift his face and kiss Leonardo. He felt relief again when he felt Leo's lips move to kiss him back.

But despite his previous thoughts to relax Leo and make him forget his worries, he suddenly couldn't help bringing up the topic anyway.

"The cold roof in the middle of the night, Leo? Ya can't keep worryin like this," he continued, before Leo even had a chance to answer. "Ya already told him he could patrol."

Leo shifted himself on Raph's plastron. There was something off in Raph's tone of voice. And now Raph wasn't meeting his eyes.

"You're upset," Leo stated. He tilted his head. "You don't agree that Akito should join patrols?"

"Its yer decision," Raph said. "You know where he is in training. In his skill level."

Leo nodded slowly as he watched Raph stare hard at a photograph Raph had of the two of them on his bedside table.

"My decision," Leo repeated as realization dawned on him. "But I didn't ask you what you thought." Leo leaned forward to nudge his nose against Raph's cheek.

Raphael hadn't intended to bring this up with Leo. Ever. But since they were apparently having the discussion anyway, he turned his eyes back to Leo. "He's my son, too."

Leo's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, Raph," he said immediately.

"Even as leader," Raph continued, thinking about Leo's actions throughout the years, "you've always checked with me before makin big decisions. You always wanted to know what I thought. And I was waitin on you for this one."

"And I never asked," Leo said in response. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"I thought you'd eventually come to me. But this time ya just made the decision. So I decided to just go along with it and support ya."

"I just assumed I knew what you'd say."

"That he _should_ join patrols?"

Leo pushed himself off Raphael and sat up in bed beside him. "If you're going to tell me _now_ that you don't think he should join patrols, I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it. Honestly, Raph, I agonized over this for months before making the decision."

Raph followed Leo and sat up as well. "I'm not sayin that, Leo. I just -," he paused and exhaled loudly.

Leo's eyes narrowed in on Raphael as he pressed his hand against the emerald face.

"I should've asked you as his other parent," Leo said softly. He could feel regret begin to build inside himself. "I'm sorry, Raphael."

Raph pressed his face against Leo's palm and offered a small smile. "We coulda agonized together."

"What _do_ you think, Raph?"

"I think he might've gone off and tried to patrol on his own if you took any longer to give yer permission," Raph said, pulling Leo's body towards him so that Leo was soon straddling his lap once more.

Leo settled himself into Raph's lap and let his fingers travel up and down Raphael's arms as he felt Raph's fingers move over the tops of his legs.

"And?" he asked.

"And I don't like the idea of him out there on patrols, either, Fearless," Raph finally said. "He is gonna start slow, right? Like one night a week? Or maybe just twice a month?"

Leo smiled at him. "Yes, of course." He leaned forward to kiss Raphael before resting his forehead against Raph's. "How did we get here where he's even old enough for this?"

"Maybe we can find a way to summon Renet and have her work the system to rewind the clock back to when Akito was still a little boy," Raph said. He had hoped to make Leo laugh but instead saw Leo look immediately thoughtful and he had to quickly backtrack. "I was kidding, Leonardo," he said, poking Leo in the side.

Leo flinched but then sighed. "Fine, no summoning Renet." He paused another moment before saying, "I really didn't mean to leave you out of this, Raphael."

Raph shook his head and pulled Leo down with him as he settled himself back on his pillow.

The tense feelings that had woken Leo earlier were forgotten completely as he realized that talking about this with Raphael, and knowing that Raph actually felt the same way he felt, eased some of his stress.

"I think I can sleep now," Leo said. He ducked his face so Raph wouldn't see his grin as he shifted himself off Raph's plastron and back onto his own side of the bed. He turned so that his shell was to Raphael, a position he actually never slept in, and waited.

He didn't have to wait long as his shell was quickly pressed back against the bed and Raph towered over him with a scowl.

"Ya have me up in the middle of the night huntin you down and now yer just goin back to sleep old man?"

Leo laughed outright and pulled Raph's face down for a kiss as his earlier thoughts about claiming his strong turtle began to return. "I'll show you an old man," Leo growled as he knocked Raph off balance and rolled them quickly. He sat straddling Raphael and saw that Raph looked pleasantly surprised. He rubbed his lower plastron against the emerald turtle and answered the immediate churr he heard from him.

Leo slid his hands up Raph's plastron, admiring the golden color. It was vibrant, just like Raph's emerald skin and his shining green eyes. Everyone and everything looked rather dull when compared to his Raphael.

"Have I told you how beautiful you are?" he murmured to the turtle beneath him.

"Not today," Raphael said, as he lifted his hips to rub against Leo again. "How bout ya stop starin and get to work?"

"Work?" Leo asked, feigning innocence. "You _need_ something from me, Raphael?"

Raph scowled up at him, but instead of responding, he moved his hand to Leo's slit and began to trace his thumb over the area. He watched Leo's eyes close at the sensation as his inhales and exhales immediately grew deeper. Raph churred and Leo's hips automatically began to move again.

"Am I makin myself clear?" Raph murmured up to him.

Leo's mouth covered Raphael's once again as he pushed Raph's thighs apart and shifted himself so that he was sitting between Raph's legs. He reached urgently into the drawer of his bedside table for the lube before clumsily covering one of his fingers.

Raphael slipped his own eyes closed as he felt one of Leo's fingers press into him. He tried to be patient through this process but patience wasn't one of his shining qualities. It wasn't long before he nudged his hips towards Leo indicating that he was ready for more. Leo smirked and raised an eye ridge of doubt at him but covered his fingers again before pressing in two together.

"You're such an impatient turtle," Leo murmured.

"Impatient for you," Raph growled. "It's a compliment." He nudged his hips again and watched as Leo only shook his head at him.

Leo left his fingers where they were and instead leaned forward to allow his tongue to swipe its way over the mound in Raph's lower plastron. "You want me to distract you?" he purred up at Raph.

Raph's hands landed on Leo's shoulders as he dropped down. He immediately forgot about his impatience as Leo's tongue began to slowly slide up his hardening length.

He moaned out Leo's name a few minutes later when Leo still hadn't pulled him into his mouth and instead had spent his time only swiping over him repeatedly with his tongue.

"You're right, you probably are ready by now," Leo said, grinning up at Raph as he pretended not to know why Raph would be frustrated with him. He used the lube once more to cover himself before crawling up Raphael's body. He slowly pressed himself into Raphael as his mouth reached down to kiss him again. "My beautiful turtle," he murmured into Raph's mouth as he continued to press his way into Raph's body.

Raphael flushed. He wouldn't verbally admit to Leo how much he liked Leo's compliments, but his hips began to thrust towards Leo as his arms wrapped around Leo's shoulders. He could show Leo his appreciation in other ways.

Leo smiled in response even as he kept his tongue twisted around Raph's tongue. His own hips began moving faster as a churr moved its way up his throat. He pulled his mouth away a moment later only so he could groan out Raph's name.

"So good, Raph," he moaned out and quickly reached down to begin stroking Raphael. He watched Raph's pupils grow fat before those green eyes shut as Raphael was caught up in his own pleasure as well.

A moment later, Raph's eyes flew open and he tightened his hands around Leo's arms as Leo hit his prostate. "Jeezus, Leo. Keep goin," he gasped.

"Whatever you want, Raphie," Leo exhaled, pumping faster. He smiled again as he watched Raph's eyes squeeze shut and his mouth drop open as he reached his release with a long moan.

Leo tried to slow his own movements so he could enjoy watching Raphael, but he was already too close to his own release and his hips moved faster despite his best effort to savor. He felt himself topple over the edge and soon collapsed on Raph's plastron.

Leo smiled into Raph's neck. "I'm not cold anymore," he said.

"Definitely my favorite way to warm ya up," Raph panted as he rolled them in order to tuck Leo into his side.

They were silent for a few minutes and Raph was beginning to wonder what Leo was thinking since he hadn't yet gone to sleep.

"I am sorry, Raphael," Leo finally whispered up to him. "I'll be sure to come to you when it's time to think about Machi's turn on patrols."

"No need," Raph said. "Our little girl's never goin on patrols."

Leo laughed as he thought of Machi's response to that and quickly shifted so he could cover Raph's mouth with his own again.

Raph wrapped his arms tightly around Leo's shell, silently forbidding him from leaving their bed again that night.


	6. Chapter 6

Woody slowly opened his eyes and found Mike's big blue concerned ones staring back at him. Mikey was sprawled out next to him with one arm propping up his head. Woody tried to smile at Mike but immediately grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut again.

"You still have that headache?" Mikey whispered to him.

The whisper was so uncharacteristically Mikey that Woody released a smile in return for just how considerate Mike was being.

"Yeah," he whispered back. He'd learned over the past couple days with this headache not to move his head to answer questions.

"Here," Mikey said softly.

Woody opened his eyes and found Mikey offering some pills and a glass of water.

"You ready to go see Dr. Donnie yet? Or even a human doctor?" Mikey asked in another whisper.

"Not for a headache," Woody said, sitting up in bed.

Mikey watched Woody swallow the pills. He reached over with his hand and pressed it to Woody's forehead and then the back of Woody's neck. At least Woody didn't seem to have a fever.

"I have to leave for practice or I'll be late," Mike said.

"I'm coming," Woody said, pushing himself out of the bed.

"Woodrow-,"

"No," Woody said, immediately recognizing the rare but serious tone of voice coming out of his turtle. He stood and stretched by the side of their bed. "The whole clan decided to begin patrolling again, right? And I've been practicing with you guys for years. I'm not missing Akito's inauguration on the first official night back out there."

"Woods-," Mikey attempted again.

"Thanks for the meds, Mikester," Woody said, heading towards the bathroom. "I'm sure they'll kick in before we get upstairs."

Mikey sighed and waited for Woody to reappear before they walked upstairs together to the family dojo where he said quiet good mornings to everyone.

Leo tilted his head at Mikey, immediately noticing that his little brother looked worried. He glanced over at Woody and noticed Woody's facial features were tight, almost like he was in pain. He made a mental note to keep his eye on the two of them. Today was not the day for any team members to be off their game.

Leo looked up again when Akito and the bunnies entered the dojo. Machi and Shadow were still going to have training together in the Hamato dojo later that day, once Shadow was home from school, but Leo had invited the teens to come join their group that morning.

Akito looked over at him and grinned widely as he entered the room. Leo flashed back to that morning, before he and Raph had even risen from bed. Raph had squeezed him and made him think back to the day when Master Splinter had allowed them to go topside for the first time. He reminded Leo how excited they'd been. " _That's how excited he's gonna be today_ ," Raph had said. " _Try to come up with a real smile for the kid_." Leo looked to Raph now and after seeing Raph's quick nod, he turned back to their son and managed to send a real smile back to him. The result was a quick look of surprise from Akito, followed by another wide grin before he joined the others in their warm up stretches.

Leo found the room strangely quiet as they began to move through some katas. Leo hoped it wasn't nerves or anxiousness rolling off of him affecting the rest of the group. He walked down the line and offered guidance when necessary. He focused on Woody and noticed that his features had thankfully smoothed out, as if he was no longer in pain. This didn't seem to stop Mikey from continuously looking over to check on his human, however.

After watching Mikey, the most flexible guy in the room, move sloppily through yet another form because he was too busy watching Woody, Leo finally spoke up.

"Your legs aren't in the right place, Mike," he said.

"Sorry, dude, but my legs spread that wide for just one activity. And this ain't it."

Leo's eyes flashed to the teens in the room, each of whom had quickly ducked their faces, before the entire room, adults and teens, erupted in laughter. Most of the occupants, including even Miwa, to Leo's shock, even fell out of their current pose to laugh. Leo soon smirked and ducked his face as well.

And it turned out that a dose of Mikey was exactly what they needed to break the tension in the room as Leo noticed everyone's shoulders ease as they moved back into their forms. There were giggles from some of the teens and Leo even got a wink from Raph's bright green eyes as he moved past him.

Leo spread them out across the room after that to spar. He smiled at Raphael as he pulled his katana and reveled in the first sharp clang of metal as they began a well-rehearsed routine of pre-guessing each other's moves. It wasn't the most advantageous practice for preparation for a fight with a stranger, but the familiarity of it had them both grinning by the end of it. And, again, it was exactly what Leo needed. Raphael as well it seeemed.

Leo watched Sam slip into the dojo towards the end to sit and watch Miwa as she sparred against Woody. It wasn't a fair fight, despite how much Woody had improved over the past few years, as he was still no match for the highly skilled kunoichi. But that was why Leo often paired them together. He'd rather Woody take his toughest hits here in the safety of their dojo. And he could see Miwa smile as Woody was beginning to predict some of her trickier moves, although he failed to dodge a leg sweep and ended up landing hard on his back, hitting his head on the mats as well.

"What?" Raph said, holding his next strike as he saw Leo freeze, his eyes across the room instead of focused on their spar. He followed Leo's eyes and found Woody on the ground, Mikey immediately hovering over him.

Leo remembered the look of pain on Woody's face earlier and watched now as Woody struggled to both sit up and clutch his temples at the same time. He watched worry lines form on Mikey's face as he wrapped his hands around Woody's shoulders and slowly pulled him into a sitting position.

But once he was sitting, Woody brushed off Mikey's hands and chuckled that he should've seen that sweep coming. He stood slowly but steadily and bowed to Miwa, who had been watching him with her own eyebrows bunched together in worry. She bowed in return as Woody shooed Mikey back to finish his spar against April.

Leo called out for a switch in partners, which landed Woody against Donnie, strategically placed because Leo knew if Woody had something off about his pupils or foot falls, Dr. Donnie would notice it right away. He didn't fail to notice the look of appreciation Mikey subtly sent his way.

Leo next stood opposite his grinning son, both of them squeezing the handles of their katanas as they circled each other. Although the grin was not the cunning face of a ninja, and not an expression Leo would encourage while Akito was out on the streets, here in their dojo, the grin was infectious, and Leo soon found himself grinning back.

By the end of practice, everyone was sweaty and smiling and calm. Leo watched as Donnie tried to pull a surprise swing with his bo towards Mikey's feet. And he watched as Mikey not only dodged it at the last second, but also managed to pull Casey into the weapon's range, which knocked Casey down on his ass. He watched April try to hide a smile behind her hand. And Leo ran his hand affectionately down one of Raphael's arms as he flashed back to the group of them as teens.

Leo and Raph left Akito upstairs to say goodbye to Violet and the bunnies, who despite their excitement, still had to go home and go to school that day before they returned that night for their first patrol. Leo watched Raph head towards their bathroom for a shower before work as he greeted Master Splinter who had been keeping his eye on Machi and Shadow. Nonchalantly keeping an eye on them, of course, as the girls were beginning to complain that they didn't need a babysitter, especially when their parents were just one floor away.

Once Master Splinter left to head upstairs for breakfast with Miwa and Sam, Leo grinned as he eyed the breakfast Master Splinter had cooked and left for them in the kitchen. He knew April and Casey would come pick up Shadow and take her school only after they'd showered for work as well, so he scooped some eggs and toast on plates for the girls. He was pouring them drinks as Akito walked in.

"You should nap today," Leo said to him. "After your tutor leaves."

"Sure thing," Akito said, still grinning as he swiped half of Machi's toast before heading off to his own bathroom to shower.

Leo could only smile and shake his head at the sixteen year old's easy agreement to a nap.

* * *

"All I do is win win win, no matter what*."

Mikey landed next to Leo on the next rooftop and Leo might have admired his quiet landing if it weren't for the continued loud singing.

"Mike," he hissed over at his brother.

"Leo, did you check out my tattoo?" Mikey said, ignoring the glare from his big brother as he lifted his hand in Leo's direction. He and Woody had used Donnie's tattoo pen and drawn the first initial of their first names on each other's fingers.

"Yes, Mikey. Now shush." Leo's eyes scanned the rooftops in front of them, relieved that he could still catch the movement of Akito and his group in the darkness.

"Dude, did you know that the first letters of our names are basically the same letter, just upside down? So no matter which way you look at my finger, it's representing both of us."

Leo turned towards Mikey and actually looked at his tattooed finger. "That's really nice symbolism, Mike."

"Yeah and it's really cool too."

Leo shook his head fondly at Mikey and took off in another sprint to continue to follow Akito's group. He rolled his eyes as he heard Mikey begin to sing again.

"All I do is win win win no matter what," Mike sang.

"Michelangelo," Leo hissed.

"Every time I step up in the building-,"

Leo growled over at him.

"-everybody hands go _up_."

" _Why_ are insisting on singing?"

Mikey stopped and looked over at him. "Do you honestly think Akito doesn't already know we're back here?"

Leo turned his eyes forward again.

"Can you imagine how we would've felt if sensei followed us our first time out?"

Leo sighed.

Mikey almost sighed at the sad look on Leo's face. "Hey, do you remember how many times sensei reminded us not to use public bathrooms that first time?" He watched a small smile appear on his big brother's face. "Did you remind Akito? It could be like a family tradition." He nudged Leo's shoulder and smiled as he watched Leo huff out a small laugh.

Leo looked up again and watched Akito's group disappear from sight.

"He's not alone either, Leo. He's got the bunnies plus, what, like 80 of your and Miwa's Hamato ninja-,"

"-Four Hamato ninja," Leo interrupted.

"That's still an impressively large group. They'll probably have to work harder to be _frosty_ and quiet considering the size."

"So you think they'll be heard? Noticed?" Leo asked, his eyes suddenly wide at the thought.

Mikey groaned. "No, dude. They'll be fine. They're not even supposed to jump into anything unless it's an emergency anyway, right? They're just out getting the lay of the land?"

Leo nodded.

"Jeez. I don't know why you got all the stressed out genes in the family, but let me share some of my awesome, laid-back genes with ya."

"I'm not singing that song, Mike."

* * *

Mikey bounced on his feet on the rooftop of their home as he and Leo waited for the others to return from patrol. It was cold but he figured if Leo wasn't going to complain then he wasn't going to either. He'd sent Woody a few texts throughout the night and Woody had always quickly responded and said he was fine. He'd been sent out with Raph and April, which was fine, but Mikey was going to have to talk to Leo about letting him stick closer to Woody on these patrols.

"You pulled me with you tonight because I'm the only one fast enough to keep up with both you and Akito, right?" Mikey asked him. He saw the guilty smile on Leo's face and shook his head back at him. He was about to tease Leo further when Akito and the bunnies suddenly landed on the rooftop in front of them.

Akito saw the relief in his dad's face, but there was a look of pride there as well, which was enough for him to forgive his father for initially following him on his first night out. Although he probably had his Uncle Mikey to thank for the moment when he and his dad had stopped trailing them and headed off in a new direction. But he'd thank his uncle for that little maneuver later. When his dad couldn't see or hear him, of course.

Leo squeezed his shoulder as they walked past him to head inside. Donnie, Casey and Miwa appeared next and headed down to the dojo as well.

Several more minutes went by before Raph, April and Woody landed on their rooftop. Mikey grabbed Woody's hand and quickly pulled him inside after April while Raph hung back and watched them go.

"Akito inside?" he asked as he approached Leo. He knew Leo had to be cold but he wanted Leo to himself for a few minutes, which meant keeping him outside for now. He wrapped his arms around Leo's shell to share some warmth and watched him nod. "How long did ya follow him?"

Leo smiled. "What makes you think I followed him?"

Raph leaned forward and gently bit into Leo's neck before repeating himself. "How long?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "Maybe twenty minutes."

Raphael huffed out a laugh. "Shorter than I expected. Mikey talk you out of it?"

Leo nodded. "Although his loud singing wasn't helping the situation, either."

"You don't let anyone else get away with loud singin while on patrol," Raph said, as he blew warm breaths on Leo's neck as Leo wrapped his arms around Raphael in return. "Yer such a softy with the goofball."

"You don't want me going soft on you, do you Raphie?"

Raphael almost churred at the sound of Leo's suddenly husky voice. He tried to remind himself that he had something important to tell Leo, but instead he only managed to say, "No, I certainly do not," before he bent his head to nip at Leo's neck again.

Leo gasped as he felt Raph's teeth on his neck. He was pretty sure that line was just going to get a laugh out of Raphael, not a further attack on his neck.

"Everyone is waiting in the dojo," he managed to say, despite the fact that he was almost panting from the efforts of Raph's clever mouth. "We have to run through a patrol review."

Raph left one more wet stripe up Leo's neck before he pulled back, suddenly serious. "That's actually why I stayed behind to talk to ya," he said.

Leo pulled his head back as well and raised an eye ridge.

"We ran into Slash and Leatherhead," Raph said. "They've been tracking a new group of mutants through the city."

"New group?" Leo asked, straightening his spine as he grew serious as well. "How can that be? I thought we collected all the mutagen years ago. Where would new mutants come from?"

"They don't know. But there's at least five or six of them."

"Well, are they hurting anyone?"

Raphael shrugged. "They don't know that either. They haven't seen them actually do anything. It's why they've been tryin to track em down. Anyway, they wanted us to know about them so we'd be prepared if we came across em."

"Okay," Leo said as he pulled Raph's hand into his own and began to lead him to their stairwell.

"And Fearless," Raph said, pulling Leo close again so he could kiss him before moving his mouth down to Leo's neck. "Let's make this meeting quick, okay?"

"Yes," Leo breathed out, closing his eyes until he heard Raph chuckle and pull him into the stairwell to head downstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *"All I Do is Win" – DJ Khaled


	7. Chapter 7

Donatello lay sprawled out on his plastron in their apartment's main room floor so that Gabriel could climb over his shell repeatedly in a game that always seemed to entertain the almost three-year old turtle. Gabe was giggling until he suddenly lost his balance and fell backwards onto his own shell.

Donnie had to laugh as he watched Gabe's surprised face as his arm and legs flew up in the air. "Lesson one on how to quickly get off your shell," Donnie said as he pushed himself off his own plastron in order to tip one side of Gabe's shell. He watched as Gabe shifted himself enough to push his hands against the floor and stand back up, "Always have your dad nearby."

Gabriel laughed and threw his arms around Donnie's neck in a hug. Donnie smiled in return and rubbed his cheek against the top of Gabe's head. It had been a few weeks since their immediate family had begun patrolling regularly again, but Donatello didn't typically join them. He was grateful that his brothers weren't disappointed in him. But then, Leo and Raph had eased off patrols when their kids were young and he knew his brothers understood his desire to remain closer to home near his young son. He knew they understood that keeping himself safe was what was currently best for Gabriel.

They both looked up as Sadie came in the apartment entrance and smiled over at them. Donnie pushed himself off the floor and rose to greet her. He grinned as he wiped a green substance off her cheek.

"You got stuck on frosting duty?" he asked her.

Sadie laughed as she lifted Gabe up into a hug. "Well Leo tried. He _really_ tried. But you know Mikey is kind of a perfectionist in the kitchen and apparently Leo wasn't frosting the cupcakes to his satisfaction. So he shooed Leo out to help Woody with decorations while saying something about how he didn't understand how Leo could make frosting look so difficult."

Donnie laughed again. Mike and Woody had volunteered to host Gabe's third birthday party later that evening and Donnie knew Leo was over there trying to help while Raph was at work.

"So then, Leo muttered something about how he didn't understand how Mike could make gogo-shiloh-,"

Donnie chuckled. "Gojushiho-sho."

"That's what I said," Sadie said, grinning back at him. "Anyway, how Mike could make that look so difficult and then Mikey threw a cupcake at him, a _frosted_ cupcake by the way, and then Leo managed to wrap a pretty impressive amount of streamers around Mikey and lets just say that at that point I decided to bail on poor Woody as he was trying to get them to stop."

Sadie's wry grin told Donnie she didn't really feel all that bad about ditching their brothers and he laughed again as she spoke.

"Should I go down there and help? Since it's for our son's birthday?" he asked.

"Nah, let em duke it out," Sadie said, carrying Gabe off to the kitchen to feed him lunch. "They have a couple more hours to get it straight so that leaves Mikey time to bake a new batch of cupcakes, if necessary. Plus you're supposed to be meeting with Sam in twenty minutes to review his progress on that latest project, right?"

Donnie glanced over at the clock as he followed her into the kitchen. He'd almost forgotten about his meeting with Sam. Although Sadie worked part-time now, she was still fully involved with what was going on in the labs. She typically worked for a few hours in the afternoon while Master Splinter greedily watched Gabe for them. Meanwhile, Donnie still worked full-time, although he had to admit it was nice to be able to run upstairs to see Sadie and Gabe whenever he wanted.

Suddenly their attention was brought to their T-phones as they began repeatedly buzzing. Donnie swiped open his phone and chuckled as he saw the emergency alert from Leo's phone. He pushed the button to call Leo and began speaking as soon as he could tell Leo had picked up.

"I hardly think being covered in cupcake frosting counts as an emergency, Leo," he said as he reached over to tickle Gabe under his chin.

"Get down here, Donnie!" he heard Leo's frantic voice say and he was moving down the stairs of the apartment building before Leo even had the full sentence out.

He raced into Mikey and Woody's apartment two steps behind Akito, who had received the alert from his own T-phone. He barely noticed that Leo was covered in frosting or that Mikey still had streamer wrapped around his neck as he quickly began examining Woody, who was sprawled on the floor, limp and unconscious,, with his head and shoulders pulled up on Mikey's lap.

"He had a seizure," Leo said to him as Donnie knelt down next to them. Leo glanced up again and watched Sadie and Master Splinter enter the apartment. Sadie quickly handed Gabe to Akito so she could kneel down next to her brother as well.

"Leo, call 911," Donnie said, as he checked over Woody's immediate vitals. He was unconscious, sweaty and his heartbeat was elevated.

"Donnie!" Mikey said, lifting his fear-filled blue eyes to his big brother.

"I'm sorry, Mike," Donnie said. "But I've never dealt with seizures before and I don't want to mess around with this. He can go to a hospital." He watched as Mikey's hands tightened around Woody's shoulders protectively.

Leo stood as he dialed 911 and quickly told Akito to call Raphael since he could see Raph was trying to get through to him on his T-phone.

Akito juggled Gabe over to one arm while he pressed the speed dial for his pop's number. Gabe was suddenly lifted from his arms as Miwa came in. He quickly filled his father in on what was happening as he listened to Donnie give Mikey instructions to begin carrying Woody downstairs to the first floor lab so he'd be there for the paramedics. He listened to his dad give their address to the 911 operator and followed the group that moved down the stairwell to the first floor lab.

Sam looked up in surprise as the large group entered the lab but quickly dropped what he was doing to rush over as well.

Once they were in the lab, though, Mikey found that he couldn't just leave Woody there. He clutched Woody tighter to his plastron until he felt Leo's and Donnie's hands on him, begging him to put Woody down so they could get out of sight.

"We'll go with him, Mikey," Miwa said, resting her own hand on Mikey's arm. "He won't be alone even for a second."

Mikey heard them all but didn't look at any of them. He finally leaned down and gently set Woody on the cold lab floor as they heard sirens coming closer to their building. Sadie was there immediately, offering her own lap for her little brother's unconscious head.

"He's been having headaches," Mikey said to Sadie, essentially handing Woody over to his big sister. "For a few weeks. Make sure they know that."

Sadie's eyes widened but she only nodded back to him. It was finally Master Splinter's hand on his arm that got his attention and he allowed his father to pull him into the stairwell.

Miwa handed Gabe back to Donnie and quickly sat next to Woody. They heard the stairwell door close as their mutant family members disappeared from sight. Sam rushed to the always securely locked lab door to quickly let the paramedics inside.

"Come on," Leo said, grabbing Mikey's arm and pulling him quickly up the stairs. "Akito go stay with your sister."

Splinter motioned for Gabe and carefully took the wide-eyed little turtle, allowing Donnie to race up the stairs after his brothers. "Let's go sit with Machi," Master Splinter said to the teenage fox. "They'll send us news."

Akito wanted to protest but couldn't go against both his father and grandfather so he quietly followed Master Splinter back to his own apartment where Machi still sat in the kitchen with their tutor.

Leo led Mikey to the edge of the building and kept his arm around his brother's shaking shoulders as they sat and stared at the ambulance sitting at the curb. Leo reached up and pulled the streamers from around Mikey's neck and let them blow away in the wind.

Mikey was pretty sure Donnie was trying to tell him something. But he couldn't concentrate enough to listen. He just stared at the sidewalk until he could see Woody again, as he was finally carted out on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance. Sadie stayed by his side and climbed in with him. Mikey could hear Miwa's motorcycle even before he saw it as it took off to follow the ambulance down the street.

"Let's go," Leo said and this Mikey did hear. He was trained to listen to that voice and it broke through his fog and he followed Leo. Because Leo was following the ambulance.

They flew across rooftops until they reached the hospital. They stopped at the building across the street from the hospital and Mikey wondered why at first, until he realized that due to an overhang, he wouldn't have been able to watch the paramedics pull Woody from the ambulance from the hospital rooftop. They sat and watched as Miwa parked her bike illegally on the sidewalk and she and Sam raced to the back of the ambulance where Sadie jumped out. Woody was pulled out next and rushed inside.

Inside and out of Mikey's view. His lower lip trembled. He'd cried plenty of times over the years in front of his brothers, but not like this. Not over something so real. He ducked his face into his hands as a sob moved its way out of his chest.

Leo immediately wrapped an arm around Mikey's shell as Donnie's eyes darted to his. Mikey's sobs in the past were usually used to wheedle something he wanted out of his brothers or related to a poor ending to a movie. He'd never sounded like this before. Donnie placed a hand on Mikey's arm and squeezed as well.

"He's going to be okay, Mikey," Leo murmured to him.

"What if he doesn't come out of there?" Mikey asked, his voice breaking over almost every word.

"He will. He will, Mike," Donnie said. "You know Sadie and Miwa and even Sam are in there right now making sure he gets the best care."

Leo turned as he sensed Raph land on the roof behind them. Raph's eyes were wide and worried and he immediately joined his brothers and placed a hand on one of Mikey's shoulders. His other hand squeezed Leo's shoulder.

"Case and April went in there, too," Raph said, almost sounding out of breath, which told Leo just how fast Raph must have run to join them. "Ya know our human family members are all bulldogs, Mike. Those docs will take good care of Woody, or else."

Mikey raised his head again and nodded slowly as he stared at he doors that Woody has passed through. He swallowed down the string of sobs that wanted to escape and tried to control his breathing.

"Just give them a little time," Leo whispered over to him.

* * *

"Why are ya covered in frosting?" Raph murmured over to him from where they sat on the rooftop edge.

Leo turned away from watching Mikey pace back and forth behind them. They were waiting for another update. Miwa was texting them every few minutes with exactly what was going on inside. Woody had been admitted after he'd had another seizure during his initial evaluation. He'd already been wheeled off for a brain scan. He was still unconscious. Each text came to Leo's phone and Leo had the hard task of relaying each item of bad news to Michelangelo.

"Mike and I got into a fight earlier. It was dumb," Leo murmured back, realizing that the silly fight seemed like forever ago even though it had only been about two hours. He'd also sent messages to Akito and Master Splinter to keep them updated as well. "He threw cupcakes at me."

Raphael nodded as that was actually a perfectly acceptable answer for a story that involved their baby brother.

April had sent a text earlier when she had to leave to pick Shadow up from school, but let Raph, Leo and Donnie know that she'd help Master Splinter with the kids for the evening.

"Are ya cold?"

Leo shook his head. He wasn't actually, despite the fact that it was early December and the temperature was dropping as the evening crept towards them. He was feeling rather numb. He thought back to earlier when Woody had been laughing with them as he tried to dodge cupcakes and streamers before he'd suddenly fallen to the floor shaking.

"If that was hard for me to see, I can't even imagine how worried Mikey must be right now," Leo said in a whisper. He felt Raph's arm go around his shoulder and pull him closer. "And it's not fair that he's stuck out here in the cold waiting."

"No, it ain't," Raph said, eyeing the windows of the hospital.

Leo's T-phone buzzed again and he could sense Mikey freeze in his tracks as he pulled it off his belt again to read Miwa's message.

"Mike, he's awake," Leo said, grinning up at Mikey now that he finally had a bit of good news to share.

"Is he talking?" Mikey asked, coming closer to Leo.

Donnie had to give his little brother credit. Mikey knew awake didn't necessarily mean aware.

Leo texted the question back to Miwa and the phone buzzed a few seconds later.

"Miwa says he's a little confused, but he's asking for you, Mike."

"Will they let him go now that he's awake, D?" Mikey asked, turning to Donnie.

Donnie swallowed. "Probably not, Mikey."

Mikey nodded slowly and looked back at the hospital. It was getting dark outside and he could finally start to easily see into some of the well-lit patient rooms.

"Where's his room?" Mikey asked. "Tell them to keep the blinds open so we can see in."

Leo sent the text and after he received Miwa's response, he pulled himself and Raph to their feet and took off for another adjacent building so they'd be able to look into Woody's room.

He watched Mikey breathe a sigh of relief as they spotted Woody in a hospital bed, surrounded by Sadie, Miwa, Sam and Casey.


	8. Chapter 8

Woody was exhausted. Apparently seizures used up a lot of energy. And the nurses who kept coming in to check on him had been encouraging him to sleep.

But Woody was refusing to sleep. He looked out his window again. It was dark outside and it was impossible for him to see anything. But he knew Michelangelo was out there, watching over him. And he wanted Mikey to see him awake. He wanted to appear fine. Not asleep. Asleep would look like he was unconscious and Sadie had already filled him in on what exactly had happened to him earlier.

"Sadie," he said, looking over at his sister. He waited till she looked up from her phone to continue. "Mike didn't answer his phone when you called?" He watched her shake her head. "I want you guys to go home," he said, speaking now to his sister as well as Miwa, Sam and Casey. "I'm just going to sleep here all night anyway. And I'm sure poor Gabriel is wondering where you are. Please tell him Uncle Woody is sorry for ruining his birthday party plans."

"Please don't worry about that, Woody," Sadie said. "We'll have his party as soon as you're out of here"

"Just go home and get some rest, okay?" Woody said.

Sadie stared worriedly at him before glancing at the others in the room. She didn't want to leave him here but Gabe wasn't used to being put in bed without her and Donnie there. She'd already been on the phone with Grandpa Splinter who reported he was having a hard time getting Gabe to settle down. And the poor kid _had_ been looking forward to a birthday party that the entire family had missed.

"I'll stay," Casey said, lifting his feet up in the recliner he was already camped out in. "I'll take first shift."

"Shift?" Woody asked.

"No way we're leaving you completely alone," Miwa said. She looked at Sadie and nodded towards the door.

"We'll go home and someone else will be back first thing in the morning to be with you," Sam said.

Sadie felt immediate relief as she glanced around at the others in the room. There had been a time when it was just her and Woody. When their parents had been lost to a Kraang attack. When she'd been in college and suddenly solely responsible for her then sixteen year old brother.

Woody sighed but nodded at the arrangement. He wanted Mikey. But he had to admit that it was nice to have family step up on his behalf. He returned Sadie's hug as she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"I'll bring your phone tomorrow when I come back. But you call me on the hospital phone or have Casey call if you need anything."

Woody nodded again and gave a quick wave to Sam and Miwa as they followed his sister out.

"It was a good idea to kick em out," Casey said, grinning at him. "Yer supposed to be asleep already. Need anythin before I hit the lights?"

"No thanks, Casey."

Casey nodded. He turned the bright ceiling lights off, although there was a light in the headboard of Woody's bed that remained on, and settled down to pretend to go to sleep. He sent April a quick text to check on his girls and watched Woody fidget and continue to stare out his window even though Casey knew he couldn't possible see what he really wanted to see out there.

* * *

Woody barely registered Casey rising from his recliner and pulling the door shut behind him as he left the room. He didn't think about it for long though because soon his crummy hospital bed mattress shifted as Mikey appeared next to him in the darkened room.

He smiled as he felt Mikey's hands cup his face and as Mikey nuzzled his nose across his cheek. When Mikey's hands slid down to his shoulders, he pulled Woody into his plastron and Woody did his best to wrap his arms around Mikey's shoulders as well.

"I was worried about you," Woody murmured.

"Me? Dude you're the one -,"

"You weren't answering your phone."

"I didn't have my phone on me when – when I left the apartment building," Mikey said, kissing Woody's forehead as he spoke. "Leo offered me his phone to use but they said you were supposed to be sleeping."

"Where are your brothers?" Woody asked. He wasn't ready to talk about what had happened earlier. He wanted to focus on having Michelangelo here and to himself.

"I sent them home when I came over here. Right after Casey sent Leo a text that said you were _refusing_ to go to sleep." He gave Woody a quick reprimanding squeeze, but it was paired with more kisses to Woody's face.

"I want you to stay," Woody whispered. He leaned forward and captured Mikey's mouth with his own. He didn't have the energy for anything more than lightly pressing their lips together, but it was okay, because Mikey was actually here. He could feel his eyes closing despite his best efforts to stay awake now that he had his turtle with him.

"Me too," Mikey whispered back as he watched Woody try to fight his heavy eyelids. He began to run his green fingers repeatedly through Woody's curly blonde hair. It was a trick he knew that was always guaranteed to put Woody right to sleep and barely two minutes had gone by before he could tell Woody finally let himself rest. Mikey breathed a sigh of relief. He was relieved to have his hands on Woody again. To have Woody speaking to him as if nothing had happened. He pressed another kiss to Woody's forehead and stayed where he was until he heard two sharp raps on the door.

When Casey entered the room a moment later, two steps ahead of the night nurse, the room was empty with the exception of the finally sleeping Woody. Casey watched the nurse check Woody before giving her a quick nod as she left the room. He settled himself back down in the recliner and closed his own eyes for sleep.

* * *

"Come here," Raph said, pulling Leo into a hug when they finally made it into their bedroom that night.

Donnie had gone home to Sadie and Gabriel. Miwa had sent a text that said Casey was staying with Woody. Master Splinter had gone home to go to bed himself after his tiring evening with everyone's favorite toddler.

When they'd first arrived home, Leo had said that he'd be right back, but Raph had followed him anyway and soon found himself helping Leo clean up Mikey and Woody's apartment. They stored the cupcakes that could be saved and cleaned up the frosting and cupcake crumb and streamer mess from Leo and Mikey's earlier scuffle. Then they'd returned home and checked on their own sleeping children.

And now Leo happily let Raph's arms pull him into a hug as he pressed his face into Raphael's neck. He felt Raphael squeeze his shell, possibly tighter than necessary, but he didn't complain. He could never complain about anything that involved Raphael's strong arms around his body.

"I'm glad you were born a turtle," Raph said to him and he had to smile at that since it would normally be a fairly strange statement. But he was glad Raph had been born a turtle as well. They would never be forced apart by human world standards.

Leo's phone buzzed and he swiped it open. "Master Splinter says Mikey is back. He's going to have him stay in his spare bedroom."

"Good," Raph said. "Dad'll take care of him tonight."

Leo began walking backwards towards their bed, pulling Raph with him. He let himself collapse on his shell when the back of his knees hit the bed and pulled Raph down on top of him.

"Sleep like this," Leo said.

"You want me crushing you all night?" Raph asked, nuzzling his nose against the side of Leo's face.

"You can't crush me. I have a shell," Leo said, smiling into Raph's neck.

Raph rolled them to the side anyway but pulled Leo closer to him as they adjusted. His lips soon found Leo's lips and they began kissing slowly. Raph reached down to leisurely run his fingers down the length of Leo's tail. Leo felt a churr rise from his throat and he pushed his tongue into Raph's mouth to twist it with Raph's tongue as he heard and felt Raph's responding churr. They moved slowly against each other, which led to quickened breathing, but neither were ready to release the other's mouth from their kiss.

Raph's fingers continued to explore, but even when he dropped down and pushed his way into Leo's body, he still barely moved, and Leo wasn't complaining. The closeness was exactly what they both needed for solace. Neither wanted Woody sick. Neither wanted Mikey upset. And having such a serious illness hit a family member reminded them that it wasn't just bad guys they had to face in this life.

Raph reached down to stroke Leo, forcing a space between their plastrons so he could reach, as he began to move his hips. It was slow and steady and Leo tightened his fingers around Raph's biceps.

Leo released Raph's mouth, but only so he could whisper out Raph's name, a common request that Raphael immediately answered by opening his eyes and focusing his green eyes on Leo's blue ones.

"Leo," Raph whispered back, keeping his pace slow as he thrust into Leo. "I've always loved yer blue eyes, Leo," he said, unable to keep his thoughts to himself as he stared into Leo's eyes. He sped up the pace of the hand he had moving over Leo and churred again when he heard Leo moan as those blue eyes slid shut in pleasure.

"Raph," Leo whispered again and he thrust his hips up into Raphael's hand. He earned a gasp from his emerald turtle as the surprise move tipped Raphael over the edge and he quickly thrust deeply into Leo, striking Leo's sensitive bundle of nerves in an equally surprising move that quickly had Leo joining him.

Leo's lips soon found Raph's again as they continued to cling to each other. Normally, Raph would rearrange them into their usual sleeping positions, but tonight he remained where he was and kissed Leo in return until Leo fell asleep mid-kiss. He smiled at the sleeping Leonardo and reached up to pull Leo's blue mask off his face before he removed his own mask and let himself fall asleep as well.


	9. Chapter 9

"Can you, um, can you say that again, doc?" Mikey asked, gripping his T-phone tightly to his ear.

"Unfortunately the brain MRI detected a brain tumor," the doctor repeated, glancing down at the strangely-shaped green phone in his patient's lap. He wasn't sure why his patient's husband couldn't be here with him, but he was at least listening in and the physician could hear the concern pouring out of the phone.

Woody stared down at the T-phone as well. When his physician had said he had some news, he'd asked the rest of his family to leave, called Mikey and put the doc on speakerphone.

"Cancer?" Mikey's voice croaked out.

"No, we don't believe its cancer, because it's not invading any of the nearby tissues. But benign doesn't mean it isn't causing problems. It's obviously rubbing against something that it shouldn't, which has led to the headaches and the seizures."

Woody shuddered but it was the only indication the physician got that he was even listening.

Mikey sat on the rooftop across from Woody's room and kept his eyes locked on Woody's pale face. He waited again to see if Woody wanted to ask a question first, but when he didn't, he spoke up again. "How do we get rid of it, doc?"

"The best option is surgery, especially considering the location and the size of the tumor. Depending on what we find will determine if we would recommend radiation after the surgery or not."

"I want you here, Mikey," Woody said, suddenly. And despite the distance and despite the ridiculous hospital gown Woody wore, Mikey could see Woody's chest begin to move up and down much quicker than it should. "I don't care that you're – I don't care. I want you here. Right now."

Mikey watched Woody's eyes lift from the T-phone in his lap to the exact spot where Michelangelo sat in the sunlight across the street. His breath caught at the desperate plea in Woody's eyes and he didn't hesitate to ask the doctor if they could have a few moments to talk in private.

"Of course," the physician said. "I'll send one of my nurses by later. We'll want to schedule your surgery for sometime in the next few days." He gave Woody a small smile, glanced at the cell phone again, and then left the room.

Woody's window slid open as soon as the doctor had pulled the door shut on his way out and Mikey had his arms wrapped around his shaking human a short moment later.

"I'm sorry, Mikey. I'm sorry," Woody said, shaking his head against Mikey's plastron as he felt Mike's arms tighten around him. "You told me weeks ago to go to the doctor and I refused."

Mikey shushed him. "Hate to say it, Woods, but they would've found the same thing and said the same thing if you'd come in weeks ago." He pulled Woody away from his plastron so he could look at him. "And, hey, he said not cancer, right?" Mikey continued, desperate to cheer Woody up. "Quick surgery. Bing, bang, boom. You're home recovering. With me."

"It's not fair that you cant be in here with me," Woody said, tightening his hands around his turtle. "How am I supposed to go through brain surgery without you?"

"Trust me, dude, if what happens whenever I go into Donnie's lab is any indication, you wouldn't want me in that operating room." He watched as a small smile appeared on Woody's face, despite Woody's attempt to stop it. "Especially near your brain. I'm pretty sure we all like ya the way you are."

"That's not what I mean and you know it," Woody said, although he let the smile stay.

"And the sooner you have surgery, the sooner you can come back home. To me. And then one day soon, we'll be all, _hey_ , _remember that time you had that pesky brain growth_? Maybe we should go ahead and name it now, like we'll call it Franklin -,"

"Franklin?"

"Yeah, I've never liked that name. We'll pretend the surgery is actually a _don't let the door hit on ya on the way out Franklin party_." Mikey smiled as he watched Woody actually huff out a laugh. "It'll be no big deal."

Woody pulled Mikey back towards him and nodded into his shoulder.

And without Woody's scared eyes looking directly into his, Mikey let his own smile falter as he squeezed Woody. "Just – you just can't leave me, Woody, okay?"

* * *

If it wasn't for the sighting of the supposed new mutants, Donnie is pretty sure Leo would've halted their patrols with both Woody and Mikey down and out. But some of the Hamato ninja had also spotted them, although the human ninja were unable to keep up with the new mutants. And so his brothers were still out patrolling for them and tonight Donnie had decided to join the group. He couldn't do anything right now to help Woody, but he could at least do this. Or so he told himself as he ran beside Leo, Raphael and Akito across familiar rooftops.

They landed on a rooftop across from the hospital to check in on Mikey first. Mike had blankets and food, although between the reports the family shared with each other, no one had actually seen him eat much in the past few days. And Donnie was pretty sure Casey had tucked a handheld game set somewhere in Mikey's blankets as well. Donnie actually hoped he was playing it when Woody was asleep. A bored Michelangelo always spelled bad news.

"How's he doing?" Leo asked as soon as they reached their youngest brother.

"They took him for a couple more brain scans. Said it would be a couple hours. They're trying to get a good map of where it is before they do the surgery," Mikey said. "April is down there with him."

 _Measure twice, cut once_ , Donnie thought to himself but wisely kept the comment to himself. He eagerly checked in often on Michelangelo, but also being married to Woody's sister had him squarely in the middle of the grief-ridden shit storm that had fallen on their family. He was doing his best at home, but he had to admit, he owed all of their family members a museum-sized amount of gratitude for checking in with Sadie as often as they were checking in on Woody.

Mikey stood up and bounced a few times on the balls of his feet. It'd been two days since they had received Woody's diagnosis and he couldn't sit still any longer. Especially when Woody wasn't even in a room where he could see him.

"I'm going to go for a run with you guys," Mikey said, deciding as he said it. He pulled his phone and sent April a quick text, asking her to text him when Woody was back in his room so he'd know when to head back.

"Okay," Leo said, smiling at him. He nodded his head to the side of the building and the group took off behind him. He wasn't even going to split them up, deciding instead that it would be best if they were all together. Mikey was a great tracker, and he was happy to have him with them for that reason, but he was sure this would be a great distraction for their baby brother as well.

They began in the last neighborhood that the mutants had been spotted by the Hamato ninja and ran from there.

"Wait," Akito said at one point and the four turtles stopped and watched as he appeared to be sniffing the air.

"Dude, are you smelling them?" Mikey whispered over to him, even though whispering wasn't necessary for Akito's sense of smell to work. "Leo, do you know how cool your son is if he can smell the bad guys out for us?" he said in a continued whisper that had Donnie and even Raph smiling in response.

"This way," Akito said and pointed to the left. He watched his dad grin at him and hold his arm up, indicating Akito should lead the way. Akito smiled and took off, relishing in the almost silent sounds of his turtle family members following him.

"Wait," Leo said, and now it was his turn to halt the group. "There," he said, pointing a few blocks ahead of them where four or five creatures were currently standing on a rooftop edge. It was dark and they were a distance away, but the mutants were standing on back legs that were similar in appearance to the back legs of dogs and also appeared to be covered in dark fur.

"Let's go," Raph said, urgently, wanting to move before the creatures disappeared from sight.

"We still don't know what they're doing here," Leo said. "What if they're harmless and we scare them?"

"How would _we_ scare them?" Raph asked, pulling his sais and twirling them in his fingers as he shot a cocky grin in Leo's direction.

Leo couldn't resist smiling back at that grin as he shook his head at him.

Suddenly the group of mutants split up, with two going one way and three heading in the opposite direction.

"Mike, you're with me," Leo said, taking off in one direction. "And talk first!" he called over his shoulder to Raphael in particular.

Raph shoved his sais back on his belt and grinned again in Leo's direction as he took off after the other group along with Donnie and Akito.

They lost the group they were supposed to be following, although Raph had to admit Akito's sense of smell was like a new secret tracking weapon. He and Donnie followed loyally behind the young fox and Raph could tell they were closing in on the new mutants when even his senses began to pick up the newcomers.

Raph reached down when his T-phone began vibrating on his belt and hoped it was Leo with good news. A cold feeling settled over him, however, as he noticed from the corner of his eye that Donnie and Akito were both pulling their T-phones as well. He swiped his phone open and immediately saw the fire alarm flashing at him. It was an app Sadie had created a couple years ago. If their phones were ever in a situation with an overwhelming amount of smoke or heat, they set off an alarm, similar to a smoke detector, to all the other phones to alert everyone that they had teammates in danger. The teammates caught in the fire didn't even have to do anything, it was an automatic response.

They knew it worked too, because Leo had set off the alarm shortly after it had been installed just trying to cook something in his and Raph's kitchen.

For a moment, Raph stared at the alarm that told him that both Leo's and Mikey's phones were caught in a fire and he briefly wondered if Leo was actually just near a kitchen before he took off in a sprint, with Akito and Donnie right behind him, towards the coordinates the phones in danger were transmitting to them.

With Akito's speed soon landing him in front of the turtles, he took the lead and Raph shut off the alarm on his phone so he could push the speed dial for Leo's phone. He cursed as the phone rang and rang until Leo's voicemail picked up. He quickly hung up and hit the speed dial again as they raced over rooftops.

Donnie watched him and didn't ask questions since it was pretty clear what Raph was doing. His nose picked up the smell of smoke before they saw it and he gasped when the fire finally came into view. He recognized the building as an abandoned hotel and stared in shock as there seemed to be a fire burning in every visible window. Akito had skidded to a halt on the building right before the hotel, stopping himself before he made the jump to the burning hotel roof, but Donnie had to reach out and grab Raph by the shell with both arms to stop him from jumping.

"Leggo!" Raph growled at him and frantically pushed Donnie's hands away from.

"Pops, please!" Akito said, rushing in front of his father before he could try to make the jump again. "What if it's just their phones in there?" Akito said in a rush, his eyes moving frantically to his Uncle Donnie as he kept his hands pressed against his father's plastron. He was taller than Raphael now, but not as strong, and if Raphael really wanted to move his fox son, he could do so easily. "We don't know that they're in there, right? Right?"

Raph's chest tightened and his eyes began to burn as he stared at the building engulfed in flames. The building that his senses told him currently held his mate and his little brother within its burning walls. He knew they were in there, because Raphael's ability to sense not only Leo, but all of his brothers, rivaled Leo's ability to do the same. Mikey could do it as well as long as Leo made a game out of it. But Donnie had never really tried to master it, relying instead on his technology to tell him where his brothers were.

Raph pushed his senses into the building again and sensed Mike there without emotion, which told Raph he was probably unconscious. But Leo. Raph pushed his senses again to find Leo. Leo was struggling in a way that made Raph's stomach twist painfully. No doubt Fearless was looking for a way out while also trying to save their baby brother.

"Leo," he whispered as he began to push Akito aside to make the jump to the burning building. But he stopped struggling and froze a second later when Leo's growl-filled voice filled his head.

_DON'T._

_YOU._

_DARE._

Raph stared at the building. Because just like he could sense Leo in there, Leo clearly just sensed him out here, and was doing his best to warn Raphael away from entering the burning building.

Akito turned back to his father and stared at his frozen, shocked face. "What?" he asked. He tried to shake his father's shoulder and still got no response other than watching him close his eyes and duck his chin.

Raphael pushed his senses back into the building to search for Leo again. He growled a few moments later when he couldn't sense him or Mikey.

Donnie swiped open his T-phone again as sirens closed in on the building and firefighters suddenly appeared to battle the fire. He suddenly frowned. "They're gone," he said.

"Gone from the building?" Akito asked, his voice full of hope.

"No, just gone. Off the grid."

Akito glanced back at his father who didn't appear to be paying attention to what Uncle Donnie was saying.

"Like the phones have been too damaged in the fire to keep working?" Akito asked, although the thought of the fire being too much for the phones was too already too much for him to handle considering what it meant for his dad and his Uncle Mikey.

"That's impossible," Donnie said. "These T-phones are indestructible."

"Don?" Raph said, pulling himself back together as Donnie's words reached him.

"These T-phones are like the fucking black boxes found in airplanes that always survive a crash," Donnie said harshly as he frantically typed into his T-phone, forcing it to search for Leo's and Mikey's signals again.

Akito's eyes widened as the uncharacteristic curse flew out of his uncle's mouth as Raphael tried and failed one more time to sense Leo or Mike. Raph knew what Donnie was saying before Akito did. He felt a chill run through him as he realized Leo and Mike were gone. But he'd take on any other problem as long as Leo and Mike weren't in that fire anymore. Because gone didn't mean dead.

Besides, he knew he'd feel it if Leonardo was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thank you to Jegrde for creating "Reader115 AU - Akito" which is an AMAZING visual of Akito based on a scene in this chapter. The fear drawn into his little fox face is incredible, Jegrde, really incredible. I hope you guys check it out and let Jegrde know what you think as well.
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/W2Anxf)   
> 


	10. Chapter 10

The sound of someone coughing woke Leo up. He opened his eyes and with his own first breath began violently coughing as well, made worse by the fact that each cough seemed to lead to a stabbing pain in his chest, which then led to more coughing.

He forced himself upright into a sitting position and while he was grateful to no longer be in the burning hotel, he was immediately alarmed to find himself in a cave.

 _Nothing good comes when you wake up in a cave_ , he thought to himself.

Michelangelo was already sitting upright next to him. It was his coughing that had awoken Leo and he was still trying to get the painful hacking under control. His eyes were wide as he looked around and he did his best to ask Leo where they were in between coughs.

Leo shook his head, doing his best to remember what had happened in that burning building. They'd gotten close enough to the creatures that they'd been chasing for Leo to realize they were wolves. And not mutant wolves either, but actual wolves from Akito and Machi's original dimension. Wolves like the ones who had stood guard outside Leo's cave when he'd been kidnapped by Akito's uncle and the rebellion he was leading in that world.

They'd chased the wolves into the hotel and had been quickly trapped in an upper level hallway and surrounded by smoke and fire. He and Mikey had begun crawling, trying to stay below the smoke but Mikey had collapsed from breathing in too much smoke, leaving Leo to try to crawl and drag Mikey at the same time. He also remembered sensing Raphael nearby. He squeezed his eyes shut as he hoped that Raph hadn't entered that burning building to try to save him. He couldn't sense Raphael nearby now and he was left with no idea if Raph was safe or not. He must've fallen unconscious soon after that because he had no further memories. It explained why his lungs felt like they were on fire. But didn't explain where they were now.

Although he didn't care where they were right that second as he quickly wrapped his arms around his little brother's shoulders and pulled him into a fierce hug.

"Are we dead, Leo?" Mikey asked, his voice a hoarse whisper as he returned Leo's hug and glanced around the cave.

Leo huffed out a strange noise as Mikey's question was too close to his own current thoughts that he'd almost lost his brother in that fire. Almost lost himself in that fire.

"No, Mike," he said, and let go of his brother's shell. "I don't think we'd be in pain if we were dead." He stood slowly and looked towards the entrance of the cave. He could only see that it was dark outside. He turned and offered Mikey a hand and pulled him to stand as well before they headed towards the cave entrance together.

Usagi looked up from the small campfire he was tending to as the turtles exited the cave. His eyes locked with Leonardo's and he registered the shock he saw there.

"I was hoping you'd both wake up soon," Usagi said after a few moments of them staring back and forth at each other. It didn't escape him that even the normally rambunctious Michelangelo was being quiet.

"Did you pull us out of the fire?" Leo finally asked. He was trying to keep his tone neutral but his voice only came out as a hoarse whisper thanks to the smoke inhalation.

Usagi nodded.

"Thank you," Leo said, because it needed to be said. But the statement was quickly followed by a question. "What were you doing there?" he asked as he walked over to the fire and gingerly sat down opposite Usagi. Mikey followed his lead and sat down next to him. He glanced around them and saw only wilderness.

"The answer to that is actually a long story," Usagi said. "One that I will tell you, but first you should know that the transporter was damaged in the fire and it clearly didn't bring me home like I was expecting it to. And I believe we're in the last dimension I was traveling through before I came to yours. But I didn't want to explore further while you were unconscious. And you should also know that we are stuck here." He looked down at the inter-dimensional transporter he'd been trying to fix before the brothers had woken.

"What?" Mikey squeaked out with his damaged voice. He jumped up from his seat and was by Usagi's side in the next moment. He took the transporter from him and immediately noted that it had clearly been burned in the fire.

Usagi watched as Mikey appeared to be growing more frustrated the longer he pointlessly shook the transporter. "It won't bring us back. Otherwise I would have already returned both of you to your home."

"Leo," Mikey said, shifting his eyes away from the transporter and over to his big brother's face. "Leo, I can't be here right now."

Leo jumped up from his own seat as he recognized the signs of panic in Mikey's face. Mikey dropped the broken transporter as Leo reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"I can't. I can't, Leo," Mikey said, reaching his hands up to grab at Leo's elbows as he shook his head back and forth. He could feel the burn of tears behind his eyes. "I can't be in another dimension right now. This is your deal. This happens to you. This doesn't happen to me. Not right now when Woody is – when Woody is." He stopped speaking for a moment to catch a breath. "I can't be here. I have to be home, Leo."

Leo pulled Mikey into his plastron as he spoke and hugged him tight, doing his best to soothe his little brother while Usagi watched with a confused expression.

"And they'll think we were trapped in that fire, Leo. That we didn't make it out," Mikey continued despite the tight hug. "He doesn't need that kind of stress right now. It's not fair."

"Listen to me, Mikey," Leo said, doing his best to sound convincing despite his missing voice. "We are going to be found and we are going to be found soon. You're right," he said as he tried to huff out a laugh, "this is my deal, but that just means our family is prepared for what to do when we disappear. I'm sure Donnie is already using his machine to search for us. Okay?" He pulled back far enough to meet Mike's eyes. He realized for the first time that they were both covered in ashy soot as he saw tear stain tracts running down Mike's face.

"Woody needs me," Mike whispered back to him, his voice cracking on the last word. He pushed himself out of Leo's arms and walked away from him.

"How long have we been here?" Leo asked, directing the question to Usagi although he was keeping his eyes on Michelangelo.

"A few hours," Usagi responded.

Leo sighed. His thoughts immediately returned to Raphael and he wondered why it was that Raph was never with him when he was forced into other dimensions. He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped again that Raph had listened to him and stayed out of that burning building.

He opened his eyes and watched as Mikey stopped walking and merely stood by himself as he stared into the trees. Leo's eyes moved back to Usagi and he found the samurai staring at him.

"It's been a long time, Leonardo."

Leo nodded and slowly moved to sit across from Usagi again. It was impossible not to be reminded of Usagi when he trained his nieces and nephews nearly every day, but Leo hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about his old friend the past couple years. "Two years I guess," Leo finally said.

"Two years and five months."

Leo blinked.

"You have not tried to reach me," Usagi said, throwing another stick onto the fire.

"What dimension do you think this is?" Leo asked, eager to change the subject. "Who lives here?"

Two years apart or no, Leo could still read his friend's face and immediately noticed that Usagi looked uncomfortable.

"They are a friendly species," Usagi finally said.

"Not human?"

"No."

Leo frowned at Usagi's short answer.

"It will be light soon," Usagi said. "And if we are where I think we are, I believe we are close to my friends' compound."

"Compound?"

"They are a tribal group. They live mainly in tents but have built a large wall to surround their homes."

"Any chance they have a transporter?"

Usagi shook his head no. "This isn't an advanced world. They aren't even aware that I'm from another dimension. They simply believe I live far away."

"Anything else I should know about them?" He watched again as Usagi looked uncomfortable and ducked his head. He watched Usagi shake his head, even though there was clearly something the samurai wasn't telling him.

Leo was finished asking questions. He turned and found Mikey slowly walking back towards them. His little brother sat on the ground next to him and slumped against his shell with his eyes closed. They sat in silence until Usagi deemed it light enough to begin walking through the forest. Leo nudged Mikey awake, although he was aware that Mike hadn't actually gone to sleep. The two rose and began to follow Usagi into the woods.

"It took them two months to find you last time, Leo," Mikey said, following Leo in the darkened woods.

"Yes, but Donnie had to build the machine in the first place and you guys had to go to Dimension X for crystals to run it. It actually only took two days once it was turned on."

Mikey was silent after that. Two days still sounded like forever, especially when Woody's T-phone probably got a fire alarm signal from his phone. He looked up and was distracted as he noticed Leo immediately freeze when Usagi's arm brushed against Leo's arm as they walked. Mikey frowned as he watched Leo wait until Usagi took a few steps ahead of him before he began moving again. When Usagi had disappeared from their lives a couple years ago, he and Donnie had tried to ask Leo what happened. But Leo always looked so uncomfortable that they had quickly backed off and never got a real answer. But now that they were indebted to Usagi for saving them and following him blindly through an unfamiliar forest, Mikey wondered if they should've pushed for the whole story.

They left the trees a couple hours later and came to a large wooden door surrounded by a large stone wall. Usagi gave a few short whistles and soon the door creaked open.

Mikey audibly gasped when it was a turtle who opened the door. And his eyes widened when the turtle immediately smiled at the white rabbit.

"Usagi! Welcome back! Come in, come in," the turtle said as he pushed the door open further.

"Thank you," Usagi said as he helped push the heavy door open.

"You've brought friends?" the turtle asked, tipping his head and eyeing the two turtles with Usagi.

"Yes. Is Nantego here?"

The turtle nodded and led them further into the compound where Leo noted an abundance of tents. They were led to a large tent that Usagi entered without hesitation. They were greeted by a much older turtle who quickly rose from his seat to offer Usagi a friendly greeting.

"I'd like to introduce two of the Hamato brothers, Leonardo and Michelangelo," Usagi said, using his arm to indicate the two turtles who had slowly followed him into the tent.

" _Leonardo_ ," the older said, sending a pointed look to Usagi that wasn't missed by either Leo or Mikey. But he quickly covered the look and turned to the two newcomers. "This is a real pleasure to meet two of the warrior turtles that Usagi has spoken so highly of in the past." He reached his hand out and quickly shook hands with both Leo and Mikey.

Leo and Mikey quickly shook his hand and politely said their greetings.

"And this is Nantego," Usagi said, turning to the turtle brothers. "He's the leader of this clan."

"Of turtles?" Leo asked, frowning back at Usagi.

"Just turtles?" Mikey asked.

"You live with other creatures?" Nantego asked.

"Yes, we do," Leo said, although he wasn't about to elaborate.

"Come, you're probably hungry from your journey. We'll put together a feast to celebrate our new guests." Nantego led the way out of the tent and Usagi moved to follow him but stopped when Leo grabbed his arm.

"What is going on?" he whispered harshly to the rabbit. "You've never mentioned a dimension of just turtles before."

Usagi's eyes moved to the arm Leo was gripping and Leo quickly let go of him.

"I didn't know about it until after you stopped talking to me," Usagi said, moving out of the tent to try to catch up to Nantego.

"Usagi!"

Leo turned and openly gaped as a blue-eyed turtle with skin the exact same shade as his own appeared and threw himself around Usagi. "You said you'd be back soon but I wasn't expecting it to be this soon. And I hear you've brought _others_ with you." And for the first time, the new turtle turned to eye Leo and Mikey.

"Word travels fast here as usual," Usagi said. "Lenape, this is Leonardo and his brother, Michelangelo. And this is Lenape. Lenape is my - ,"

Leo watched as Usagi fumbled over the next word and saw Lenape narrow his eyes at Usagi.

Lenape turned to the two new turtles and said, "I'm his good friend," although he didn't extend a hand to either of the Hamato brothers. He turned his eyes back to Leonardo and continued to examine him closely.

Mikey felt Leo tense and Leo resisted the urge to fidget.

"You said they were warriors, but you did not mention how very muscular they are," Lenape finally said. "I'm afraid you will have to use your skills to defend yourselves against our female turtles."

Mikey laughed loudly, doing his best to break the weird tension as Lenape turned back to Usagi.

"Save me a seat next to you," the new turtle said to Usagi. "We've all been summoned to the meal and I'll be there in a minute." He gave a quick nod to Leo and Mikey and then turned to head in a new direction.

"Exactly how often do you come here, dude?" Mikey asked once Lenape was gone. "They're like, in love with you."

"I have made friends," Usagi said before turning to walk towards the banquet tent where they could see several groups of turtles heading.

"I feel like I should be excited about all the turtles, but this seems a little creepy," Mikey murmured over to Leo.

Leo nodded in response, a cold chill running up his shell as he moved to follow Usagi.


	11. Chapter 11

The elevator doors opened to Donnie and Sadie's lab and Casey walked into the large room and looked around. It appeared empty. He knew Donnie wasn't here waiting on the machine that was searching for Leo because he'd programmed the machine to send him an alert to his T-phone when it found him. Casey knew this because he remembered how the alarm had gone off the last time Leo had gone missing. The whole family had been together at the time eating dinner at Mikey and Woody's place. Mikey had invited everyone over at least four to five times a week during those two months. And everyone went because they all wanted to be near each other. And because it was a good way to make sure Raphael was eating.

The alarm on Donnie's T-phone had sounded like a siren and everyone, even Master Splinter, had froze. Casey had seen the guarded hope on Raphael's face and swore he was going to pummel Donnie if that alarm happened to be just for some dumb experiment down in the lab. But Donnie had sent a quick nod to Raphael and Donnie's plate had even been knocked to the floor in his hurry to stand and get down to the lab.

And now they were waiting for the alarm to sound once again so that they could retrieve their missing family members. April had called him frantically the night before asking what to do with Woody's T-phone. She'd been sitting in Woody's hospital room when that fire alarm app had sounded on everyone's phones and she'd snatched Woody's T-phone, turned off the alarm and then ran down to the lobby before Woody returned in order to call Casey. And maybe it was irresponsible to steal Woody's phone and disappear, but so far Mike had been gone less than one day and no one had the heart to tell Woody that he was even missing. Although, they did all agree that they'd tell him that night if they couldn't get the guys back before then.

He walked down a row of lab tables covered in papers and equipment and finally found Raph sitting against the wall with his head and shoulders slumped. He sat underneath where the dimension-searching machine sat running. Raph nodded at him when he approached and Casey sat down wordlessly next to him.

"So what's new?" Casey asked in a lighthearted tone.

Raph slid his eyes over to Casey and scowled at him. "Why aren't ya at work?"

"Family crisis," Casey said, letting out a deep exaggerated breath.

"Again?"

"Yeah, dude, my family is super dramatic. Brothers missin. Another brother in the hospital. Another brother sulkin. I need a vacation."

"I better not be the sulkin one."

"Well yer not missing and yer not in the hospital." He grinned when he felt Raph elbow him sharply in his side. "Look, I'm not sayin you should come down to the garage and work with me, but are ya sure sittin here is a good idea?"

"I can't go another two months without him," Raph said in response. "I can't do a repeat of last time."

"Ya won't have to," Casey said. "That machine is gonna go off any minute." He paused for a moment and silently willed the damn thing to sound the alarm. Luck wasn't on his side though because the only sound was random beeping from some of the other machines in the room. He sighed.

"What if those mutants weren't really mutants but beings from another dimension? If they set the fire, expecting us to believe that our brothers were dead, then that means they don't intend to bring em back."

Casey nodded. He hadn't thought of that. But then, Raph had been sitting here with only his thoughts for hours.

"What if they're hurting them? What if he's scared?"

"Fearless?" Casey asked, incredulously. "You don't call him that for nothin. That guy isn't scared even when he should be."

Raph had to smile at that as Leo's fierce blue-eyed gaze sprang to his mind. His eyes rose to the machine again. "I'm just gonna sit here near the machine for a while," he said.

"Alright," Casey said, slumping himself further down against the wall to get comfortable since it looked like they were going to be staying.

Raph glanced over and watched as Casey shut his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. After a moment, he felt Raph's eyes on him and peeked one open to look at him. He watched as Raph nodded at him. Casey nodded in return and shut his eyes again.

* * *

"I was wrong. This is totally _super_ creepy, dude," Mikey murmured over to Leo where they sat at the table.

Leo elbowed Mikey's arm to get him to quit openly staring at Lenape as he sat draped over Usagi, who didn't appear to mind at all, while they all ate.

"Leo that guy could be your twin," Mikey whispered urgently over to him before he poked at the food on his plate again.

Leo kept silent but he was beginning to wonder if this little adventure could get any stranger.

"Usagi said you were caught in a fire," a young turtle said, coming up behind Leo and Mike at the table. "This tea should help your throats."

"Thank you," Leo said and he and Mikey both greedily drank down the tea which did have an immediate soothing effect.

He and Mikey turned back to the table and were quickly caught up in a discussion with the turtles around them. Leo was thankful that despite his stress, Mikey was still willing and able to talk amiably with this group of turtles. He even thought he heard a sincere laugh or two out of his little brother.

"Leonardo," Nantego said, when the meal was over. "May I have a word with you?"

Nantego stood up and took a few steps away from the table and Leo understood that he wanted Leo to get up and walk with him. He glanced over at Mikey who gave him a quick nod that he was okay to be left alone.

Leo rose and joined Nantego who began to lead him away from the large group.

Mikey, meanwhile, watched as Usagi's eyes followed Leo as he walked away with this clan's leader. Mikey thought the look in Usagi's eyes was rather strange considering it was clear that Usagi had something going with Lenape. With Leo gone from the table, Lenape jumped up and headed off to get another helping of food. Mikey slid down the table towards Usagi.

"That guy looks a lot like Leo, huh?" Mikey said.

"There are only so many shades of green I suppose," Usagi said.

"It's weird, dude. Really weird," Mikey said as he glanced around the tables at the multitude of shades of green on all the turtles at the tables. "And I'm kinda surprised Lenape isn't pissed now that he can see that you're using him to try to replace someone else."

"What is your concern, exactly, Michelangelo?"

"I just want you to know that my gratitude for you saving my and Leo's life will never make it okay with me for you to make advances on my taken brother," Mikey said.

Usagi sat up straighter and really looked at the orange-clad turtle. His normally warm and mirth-filled blue eyes were a strange steely gray and fierce-looking in a way that reminded Usagi of Leonardo's eyes when he faced an enemy.

"I'm not making advances on Leonardo."

"Great," Mikey said. "Because if you continue to make Leo uncomfortable, I will be forced to throat punch you."

Usagi almost smiled at the way Michelangelo's blue eyes flashed with this threat. "Your brother is a big boy," Usagi said, emphasizing his words. "He can take care of himself."

"Sure can," Mikey said, "but that's not how it's done in this family."

Mikey stood after that and walked towards the tent that had been deemed theirs for the time being. He found Leo's eyes and nodded to him before ducking inside to sit away from the crowd. He wondered what Woody was doing at that moment. Hopefully sleeping. Hopefully he didn't even know Mikey was gone yet. He thought back to Leo's reminder that it had taken Donnie's machine two days last time to find him. Two days didn't sound like a lot of time compared to never being found and being stuck here forever in turtle world, but two days was too long to be away from Woody right now. He laid back on one of the beds and stared at the ceiling. And even if Woody somehow didn't already notice Mikey's absence, he would soon, which meant Woody was going to be worried and it was all Mikey's fault. Mikey wondered if worry could cause a brain tumor to grow.

He rolled to his side before his brain could start worrying about being here longer than two days and forced his eyes closed to try to sleep.

Leo had watched Mikey duck into their tent while he listened to Nantego talk. He wondered if he should excuse himself and follow him before deciding to let Mikey have some time to himself. If Mikey wanted company, he would've just dragged Leo in there with him. Mike wasn't subtle. He turned his attention back to the turtle leader.

"Usagi tells us that you are a great teacher, Leonardo," Nantego said to him, eyeing the muscular turtle. He watched Leo nod subtly and noted that the turtle was clearly not going to openly brag about his accomplishments or conquests. "He has also said that you are the leader of your clan and you have led your warriors through many impressive battles. Our clan's existence doesn't include battles, but it might be nice to have some strong warrior turtles help guard our home. What would you think about merging our two clans?"

Leo knew this was request was probably a great honor and he thought of the honor and manners instilled in him by his own father. He was going to do his best to be polite.

"I'll admit I'm intrigued to find a clan of just turtles," Leo said, "but not everyone in my clan is a turtle, and I'm afraid not only would I be unable to move them away from our current home, but I would not wish to leave our home either."

Nantego nodded, accepting Leo's answer as he had to admit to himself that he didn't have high hopes of talking the other clan leader into relocating. He lowered his voice and leaned in towards Leonardo, "Well, while you are here, I believe I have someone who would gladly keep you company."

Leo's eyes narrowed and he suddenly stopped walking.

"Maybe we could merge our clans in another way," Nantego said. "I have a very beautiful daughter. And my clan could certainly use some new, strong blood."

 _Apparently this adventure could get stranger_ , Leo thought with dread. First Usagi's ridiculousness and now this.

"I – I have a mate," Leo managed to say.

"I'm sure you do," Nantego said, seemingly unfazed by Leo's statement. "But your mate isn't here. And I will simply explain to my daughter that you are not staying."

* * *

"Leonardo, wait."

"Usagi, I can't. I can't handle you right now," Leo said, beelining towards his tent. He was going to collect Michelangelo and he was going to get them the hell out of here before they propositioned his baby brother as well. They could sleep in trees in the forest. It wouldn't be the first time. And when Raph showed up to bring them home, and his ass had better show up soon, maybe, just maybe they'd come back here and collect Usagi so he could be transported home as well.

"I haven't had a chance to explain to you what I was doing in your dimension," Usagi said, quickly following the speedy turtle. "When I pulled you from that fire."

Leo stopped in his tracks at Usagi's reminder that he owed him for saving his life. He glanced towards the tent where Mikey had disappeared before turning to eye Usagi.

"Come, I have an honorary tent here and I have some of that tea you like. I assure you you'll want to hear what I have discovered regarding those wolves you were chasing."


	12. Chapter 12

Raphael poured soup into bowls and pushed them into the microwave for the kids. He stared at the pantry and then looked blindly into the fridge. He'd have to come up with more than soup to feed them. His teenage son ate more at every meal than Raph had ever even seen Mikey put away.

He glanced into the main room again and stopped what he was doing to watch Machi meditate. She'd been quiet since he and Akito had told her about Leo's disappearance when she woke up that morning and now he frowned as he watched her sit and willingly meditate in the middle of the room by herself.

Violet had come over earlier and he'd chased her and Akito out of Akito's room and up into the dojo, although he was beginning to question that decision as he realized there was even less adult supervision up there. Akito had been quiet all day as well and Raph knew he should check in with his son. Akito hadn't been patrolling very long and this was the first big event that had happened on a patrol. But he didn't really want to check in without Leo. Leader Leo would know what best to say.

He glanced over at Machi again. She was only ever that silent and still when she was asleep. It was almost unnerving to watch her now even though he knew it was proper meditation technique.

He turned back to the kitchen and pulled the freezer open to glance inside, then shut the door without pulling anything out. Sighing, he pulled his phone from his belt to check once again for messages. Sadie and Miwa had gone to the hospital earlier to return Woody's phone to him and finally admit to him that Mike was missing. He was waiting to hear how that had gone. But since he still hadn't heard from them, he was going to guess that it wasn't going well.

There was a quick knock at his door and Donnie entered carrying Gabe. He put Gabe down and joined Raph in the kitchen as the microwave beeped.

"Sadie's still at the hospital," Donnie said. "I was hoping you had something you'd be interested in sharing for dinner."

Raph smirked. They picked on Leo, but Donnie was also a terrible cook. He was just able to be a terrible cook without _also_ killing the appliances.

"I was just trying to figure that out," Raph said. "So far I have soup."

Donnie sat at the island and glanced behind him to watch as Gabriel climbed into Machi's lap. A small smile crossed Machi's face but she didn't otherwise move.

"She okay?" Donnie whispered over to Raph.

Raph shrugged as he pulled a loaf of bread out of their breadbox.

"I know I'll get a scowl for this, but are you okay?"

Raph huffed out a breath and threw some bread into the toaster. "I just hate waitin."

"No more waiting," Machi said, appearing suddenly beside him with Gabe in her arms. "It's time to go get them back."

Raph turned to her and rested a hand on her small shoulder. "I know kiddo. We just have to wait and let the machine do its job." He tried to sound sincere. He was in no way patient, but realized he at least needed to appear patient in front of his daughter.

"No," Machi said assertively. "No more waiting. Time to go _now_."

Raph frowned down at her and wondered how he could explain what they were waiting for when an alarm as loud as a fire engine siren suddenly sounded from Donnie's T-phone. Gabe covered his ears as Machi smiled up at Raphael.

"Now," she said to him again.

* * *

Raph stood still and silent where the transporter had landed him. His eyes moved quickly over the many tents in front of him. It was dark and there were apparently a lot of places for him to look, but he could already sense Leo nearby, which tapered down his frustration at not seeing him immediately.

He began to move slowly past the tents, doing his best to let his senses guide him towards his mate. He could hear voices within the tents, just random chatter from the occupants. He moved to the end of one line of tents and stopped cold when he heard a voice moan out Leo's name.

Raphael charged through the tent's opening and stopped short when he came upon _the rabbit_ situated between the legs of a turtle who looked damn similar to Leonardo, but who was definitely _not_ Leo.

"What the fuck?" Raphael growled.

Usagi groaned in frustration at the sight of the red-clad turtle as he sat himself upright on his bed. "You have very poor timing, Raphael."

Raph turned and quickly left the tent. He retreated back into the darkness but was tackled to the ground a few short seconds later.

He startled for only a moment before he recognized Leo's scent and saw Leo's blue eyes staring down at him. He lifted his hands and used them to pull Leo's face down to his own until Leo's mouth was covering his. The kiss set off sparks in Raph's gut as an overwhelming feeling of relief ran through him. He felt Leo's hands move to squeeze his upper arms and was sure Leo was feeling it too.

"Raphie," Leo whispered to him a few moments later. "I want you to get us out here right now."

"They hurt you?" Raph asked, his brow quickly furrowing as he let his hands run down Leo's body as if his fingers could seek out any injuries.

"Not in the way that you'd think," Leo said. He pushed himself to his feet and quickly pulled Raph up as well. He glanced towards the tent he'd just seen Raph exit. "You found Usagi before you found me?"

"I heard the bastard moanin yer name," Raph growled.

Leo shuddered as the news was unwelcome but also unsurprising after the things he'd seen that day.  

"You know I've never even kissed anyone other than you, right? I keep that shit consistent," Leo said, then felt pleased a moment later as he watched Raph's green eyes spark and heard him huff out a small laugh since he knew he'd been able to lighten Raph's mood. "Did you think I was actually in there?"

"Not willingly," Raph said, wrapping his arms around Leo's shoulders and pulling him close to him again.

Leo shuddered again at the thought and felt Raph squeeze him tighter as he began to press kisses down the side of Leo's face.

"Mikey okay?" Raph asked.

"Yeah, he's asleep in our tent. I was meditating and suddenly sensed you nearby." Leo said as he lifted his hands to cup Raph's face and let the feeling of relief at seeing his emerald turtle wash over him again. He watched Raph's eyes slide shut and leaned forward to kiss him once more. "You didn't go into the fire," he said.

Raph shook his head as he reopened his eyes and smiled at Leo. "You _growled_ at me not to."

Leo smirked at him. "Do you know how much I love it when you listen to my orders?"

"Very funny, Fearless," Raph said, pulling Leo in close enough to kiss him again.

"Oh good, you found him," Usagi said as he exited his tent and joined them in the darkness.

Raph growled but kept his focus on Leo. "If the rabbit is here, why did I have to come find ya? Why didn't he transport ya home?"

Leo glanced at Usagi before turning back to Raphael. "He used his transporter to get us out of the fire, but the fire damaged it. So we've been waiting for you." He ran a hand down the side of Raph's face and curled it around his neck.

"Is that turtle in there actually named Leo?" Raph asked, turning his attention to Usagi.

"It is a nickname," Usagi said slowly.

There was an awkward pause and Raph tightened his hold around Leo. Usagi ducked his eyes away from Raphael's glare and didn't dare look towards Leonardo.

"I am going to say goodbye to my friend before we leave," Usagi finally said as he ducked back into his tent.

"Does that mean we have to take the rabbit back with us?" Raph said, sighing.

"Yes," Leo said. He reached down and slid his fingers through Raph's fingers to pull him towards his tent. "But he did save me and Mikey. And he had some interesting information about those wolves we were after. And about Akito and Machi."

Raph followed Leo into a tent and was about to ask him about Usagi's information when he spotted their baby brother asleep on a cot. He walked over to Mikey and stared down at him for a moment as he felt a newfound sense of relief in seeing Mike safe and sound. He reached forward to shake Mike's shoulder and smiled when Mikey grabbed his wrist before he could even touch him.

"Good ninja skills, baby brother," Raph said. He watched Mikey's eyes as they quickly widened into huge circles when he realized whose wrist he was holding.

"Raph!" Mikey yelled. He jumped up and threw his arms around Raphael's shoulders in a hug. "Please tell me you have a working transporter, bro." He pulled away and watched Raph smile and nod at him. "Woody?"

"We had to tell him you were missin earlier tonight, although I'm pretty sure he already knew since we stole his T-phone and we've been kind of avoidin him. But he also knows I left to bring you back. He's tough, don't worry so much." He nudged Mike's shoulder and waited for Mike to smile at him before he turned back to Leo. "What information does the rabbit have about our kids?"

"Lets just get out of here and I'll tell you when we're home," Leo said.

"Yeah, let's go before they try to get more of Leo's turtle babies," Mikey said, pulling his belt off the ground.

"What?" Raph asked, spinning back towards Leo.

"Its time to go," Leo said, nodding his head towards the entrance of the tent.

Raph moved across the tent and his fingers wrapped possessively around Leo's arms in silent question.

"It was a simple request from their clan leader," Leo said in response. "I politely declined."

"Leo tried to get me to leave the compound and sleep in the trees when there was a perfectly good bed here," Mikey said with a yawn. "It's not like any of these turtles were going to attack us, bro. If you want to be worried, I'd watch out for Usagi and his Leo look-alike."

Raph's fingers subconsciously tightened around Leo's arm.

Usagi suddenly pushed through the tent's opening and joined the brothers. "I am ready when you are," he said.

"What kind of creepy place did you bring them?" Raph immediately asked him.

"It's not creepy. They are a peaceful clan," Usagi said with a deep sigh. "And for the record, you were never supposed to be here. Ever."

Leo tensed his arm muscles under Raph's fingers to get his attention. "Home," he said when Raph's eyes met his.

* * *

Woody sighed as he felt Mikey's fingers move through his hair and down the side of his face. He startled awake a moment later when his brain reminded him that he wasn't home in bed. And Mikey was missing.

But Mikey wasn't missing. Because although it was true that he wasn't home in bed, Mikey _was_ actually here. And Mikey's hands _were_ on him.

"Michelangelo," he groaned out, fighting through the fog in his head. They'd switched one of his medications earlier that day and the new stronger meds left him feeling drowsy and lethargic.

"I'm right here, Woody," Mikey whispered to him. "I'm so sorry."

"You okay?"

"Perfectly okay. And I promise not to leave my post again. Are you okay?"

"S-surgery is tomorrow," Woody said.

Mikey frowned at the slurred speech and pulled Woody closer to him. He rested his head on top of Woody's head as he felt Woody fall back into his seemingly-sedated sleep.

"Don't let the door hit ya on the way out, Franklin," he whispered.


	13. Chapter 13

It was late when they landed on the Hamato Engineering rooftop after dropping Mikey at the hospital. Raph had sent Miwa and Sam a text as they watched Mikey head to the hospital rooftop to scale down to Woody's window so the human family members would know to leave the room and keep a lookout for nurses so Mikey could visit Woody.

And now that they were home, they went first to Master Splinter's apartment so their father could see Leonardo returned safe and also so they could pick up Akito and Machi. Machi had been tucked into Master Splinter's side to watch a movie and Akito had been standing by the windows waiting when they entered. Akito reached him first and Leo smiled into his red fur as he got a hug from his tall son.

"That fire," Akito murmured as he pulled back and searched over his dad's face and body for injuries or burns.

Leo squeezed Akito's arms before releasing him so he could wrap his arms around Machi who had already pressed herself into his side.

"I'm fine. It was actually the smoke that we were in the most danger from. Luckily Usagi reached us and got us out of there," he said, nodding his head towards the samurai who stood back from the family reunion.

Leo watched as Master Splinter thanked Usagi before he gave his father a quick hug as well. He said goodnight to his father and ushered the rest of them out of his father's apartment. They went downstairs to the third floor and knocked on Casey and April's door to let them know they were back as well.

It didn't escape Leo's attention that Raphael remained stiff and silent until Leonardo said a quick goodbye to Usagi, who they left with Donnie in his lab, leaving Don to transport Usagi back to his own dimension.

They ushered the kids back into their own apartment and sent them both to bed. Raphael watched Leo's shoulders droop as soon as they were alone in their own bedroom. He began to push off his own gear and kept his eye on Leo as he did the same. Leo's movements were slow and Raph knew he was finally letting his exhaustion show now that he didn't have to keep up the pretense of being fine in front of the rest of their family.

"Have you gotten any sleep in the last 24 hours?" Raphael asked.

"Well," Leo said, letting his elbow pads fall where they landed as he pushed them off, "I was unconscious for a while."

Raphael walked over to him and pushed him backwards until his knees hit the bed, forcing him to sit. He crouched down and pulled Leo's knee pads off for him.

"That doesn't count."

"Then I guess not," Leo said before allowing a long yawn to escape. "You?"

Raph shook his head as he stood back up and reached around Leo's head to untie his blue mask. He pulled Leo up next and led him into their bathroom. "Yer covered in dirt and soot from that fire and where ever else you've been," he said as he turned on the warm water for their shower. He placed his unresisting turtle under the water and immediately reached for the soap to begin scrubbing him clean.

Leo was partly amused, although it was mostly exhaustion that led him to stand still and let Raph move his body as needed to scrub the dirt off. He watched Raph's emerald hands move over him and even kept his eyes on Raph's hands when Raph stopped scrubbing and tightened those hands around Leo's sides.

"You okay, Leo?" Raph asked, his voice only loud enough to be heard over the rushing water.

Leo pushed away the thoughts of what had happened in the past day and cleared his face of emotion before meeting Raph's green eyes. Raph immediately scowled at him and reached over to turn off the water.

"Don't do that," he said harshly to Leo. Harsh enough that Leo actually looked surprised for a moment. "Don't hide from me."

"It was just one day, Raph. You found me and brought me home. And now I'm fine."

Raph grabbed a towel and threw it at him before pulling another for himself.

"Bullshit. You and Mike were almost lost in a fire," Raph said, his tone still harsh. "You were taken to another dimension where ya were stuck with the rabbit. And then ya had another clan leader proposition ya for offspring. And that's plenty to deal with without us gettin into a discussion involvin the rabbit's Leo-look-alike turtle-toy."

Leo finished drying off and walked past Raphael to head back to their bedroom. "You forgot the part where I woke up in a cave," he said, dryly over his shoulder as he went.

"Again?" Raph said, dropping his own towel on the floor to follow Leo.

Leo stopped and turned to face Raphael, his face still blank. "I really don't want to talk about any of it, Raph."

Raph scowled again at that blank face. Part of him thought about giving into Leo's request and backing off. But the stronger part of him knew Leo well enough to push forward anyway. "Ya don't talk about it and ya get nightmares," he said, remembering how the nightmares from the last time Leo had woken up in a cave had lasted for months.

"It wasn't that bad, Raph. I didn't die in the fire. I had Mikey with me. I got to meet some interesting turtles." Leo shrugged, doing his best to look nonchalant.

"Well, aren't you an optimistic turtle," Raph said, raising an eye ridge and crossing his arms.

"Look," Leo said, getting slightly angry at the sarcasm he could hear in Raphael's voice. "I don't want to talk about the fire which was obviously a trap that I walked myself _and_ our baby brother right into." His eyes flashed at Raphael, challenging him to argue with him on that point. "And I don't want to talk about the fact that I was sucked into another dimension without you, _again_. Or about the clan's leader's push for me to mate with his daughter despite my telling him _several_ times that I already had a mate. And I _definitely_ don't want to talk about you catching Usagi having sex with my doppelganger while pretending it was me."

Raph climbed into bed, relieved and satisfied that the anger that now had the leader turtle glaring and practically panting had wiped the blank expression off Leo's face. "Ya feel better?" he asked.

"I'll feel better when you stop pushing my damn buttons."

"But I like yer buttons," Raph said with a smirk. He'd take upset and angry over expressionless. "Come here."

Leo scowled at his mate, blaming the exhaustion for how easily he'd just let Raphael push him into mentioning exactly what he didn't want to talk about. His own stubbornness kept him rooted to the spot where he stood for another moment. But the bed looked so comfortable. And he knew from experience how warm and safe he'd feel as soon as he pressed his body against Raphael's body. So he climbed into bed as well and was quickly pulled into Raphael's side. He used his nose to push Raph's face to the side so he could press his own face into the emerald neck, took one deep inhale of Raphael's scent and was asleep in the next moment.

Raphael huffed out a breath when he realized just how quickly Leo had fallen asleep. He adjusted Leo slightly only so he could pull him closer and shut his own eyes. He did his best to fall asleep as well.

But an hour later, he was still wide awake. He was so caught up thinking about what Leo had been through and his own recent, frightening thoughts about the possibility of going months without seeing him that he didn't even notice Leo wake up until Leo shifted himself up onto an elbow and was staring down at him. He stared up at those blue eyes that he'd missed. He knew he should encourage Leo to go back to sleep, since Leo was clearly exhausted. He was pretty tired himself. But his thoughts were keeping him awake.

"Leo," he whispered.

Leo nodded. Now it was his turn to search Raph's green eyes for what was troubling his turtle.

"Why are ya bein targetin this time?" His fingers tightened around Leo as he asked. Getting Leo back didn't mean that he wasn't still in danger. He'd been trapped in that fire for a reason.

Leo lifted himself up further so that he could sprawl his upper body across Raph's plastron. He grew serious as he met Raph's green eyes again.

"Those wolves we were chasing aren't mutants, Raph. They're just wolves from Usagi's dimension. And I've seen them before. They were guards of that last cave I was in, when Trax and I were kidnapped by Akito's uncle and his rebellion."

Raphael frowned, angrier now than he'd been before that he hadn't gotten his hands on those wolves. Leo moved one of his hands so he could slide it down the side of Raph's scowly face.

"And, they're not just after me, Raphie. They'll be going after you as well to get what they want."

"Akito and Machi?" Raph asked, suddenly realizing exactly why the both of them would be targeted.

"Yes," Leo said, nodding solemnly.

Raphael sat up suddenly, pushing Leo into a sitting position as well. "Why the hell do they want our kids?"

"Apparently for the same reason Akito and Machi's uncle wanted them. Usagi and the authorities in his dimension now believe that their uncle murdered their birth parents so he could take custody of them."

"Murdered?"

"Their birth father and the uncle were brothers. But apparently their mother was from a rather important family in that world. Usagi described her family as practically royalty as far as how the public viewed them. They spent their time helping people. They built homes. They helped them find jobs. They collected and shared food. And," Leo said, pausing for a moment as a small smile spread across his face, "they patrolled the city and kept everyone safe." He watched Raph's eyes light up as well.

"So Akito would've ended up patrollin no matter what, huh?"

"Looks like it," Leo said.

"He's gonna love that."

Leo released a small laugh and nodded as well. "Yes, apparently he was truly just following his instincts when he pushed me to let him patrol."

Raphael nodded before frowning again. "So why did the uncle want custody of the kids?"

"Their mom was raised in her family of do-gooders, while their dad and his brother were raised in the rebellion. So Akito and Machi's parents were supposed to be enemies. And the uncle was pretty upset when his brother left the rebellion and his family to marry her."

"Sure, betrayed by a brother," Raphael said, nodding.

"A brother who chose good over evil," Leo said with a small smile. "You're supposed to be rooting for the good brother in this story, not the evil one. Remember the evil one has been accused of murder and was the one who turtle-napped me in the past."

Raphael returned the smile and ran his hands down Leo's arms. "Lets just say I can understand how pissed he must've been to lose his brother to the enemy's daughter."

"Very funny," Leo said, leaning himself forward to press his lips to Raphael's lips. "And you can understand no such thing. As if I'd ever leave you."

"You did have me slightly worried when we were teens."

"Really? I never noticed," Leo said, innocently, although he managed to roll his eyes as he said it.

Raph pulled him close again to kiss him and Leo laughed into the kiss before turning serious again to continue.

"So, the uncle was upset with his brother for leaving. And he tried to get his brother to come back to the rebellion and bring his two fox children with him. But their father refused to leave their mother and he had even joined in on patrols and other duties that involved helping people. And it sounds like the uncle wasn't so determined to get his brother back, as much as he was determined to get his hands on Akito and Machi."

"Why?"

"Well, apparently, the legend in that world is that the birth mom's family was so successful because they possessed special gifts. And the uncle believed the kids would possess these gifts as well and he wanted the kids on the side of the rebellion as an advantage."

"Special gifts?"

"Usagi has no idea if that part is true or even what the special gifts would be. But now that the kids are older, the wolves are back to collect them and bring them back to be used for the rebellion's cause. Usagi came to try and track the wolves as well to see if it was true. And to warn us if it was."

"Well, isn't he just a helpful guy?" Raph said, sarcastically.

"Not that I want to over-defend him right now, but normally Usagi _is_ a good guy. He's an honorable warrior, which is why I was friends with him in the first place. There's just something that happens where I'm concerned -,"

"Hormones."

"-that turns him kind of creepy."

"I'm just glad you and I are on the same page about that," Raph said, sliding his hands down Leo's arms again. "So what's the plan, Fearless?"

Leo sighed. Usagi had just told him all of this information earlier that evening, but he'd already spent some time in meditation trying to come up with a plan.

"We can't let those wolves roam around the city doing who knows what while they search for us and the kids," Leo said. "So we have to keep searching for them ourselves."

"They're not gettin their paws on our kids."

"Agreed. But how do you think Akito will react if I take him temporarily off patrols?"

Raph knew Akito would be upset, but his only response was, "I'll back ya up."

He smiled in the next moment though as he watched Leo shift himself so that he soon sat straddling Raph's lap.

"Have I properly thanked you for finding me and bringing me home?" Leo asked.

"No ya haven't," Raph said, squeezing his fingers over Leo's legs as he watched those blue eyes darken. "Although, I can't blame ya for forgettin. I've never actually seen ya fall asleep that quickly." He smiled as he leaned forward and began kissing the side of Leo's face. "Aishiteru, Leonardo."

Leo smiled in return. "I love you, Raphael," he said in return as Raphael nuzzled his neck.

Raphael's fingers moved to trail over the grooves in Leo's shell as he pulled his head back to meet Leo's eyes again. "Sometimes I have to wonder how I got to be so lucky."

Leo narrowed his eyes. "Lucky?"

"You've certainly had other offers in the past, Fearless. But for some reason, ya always choose me."

Leo's frown smoothed out and he shook his head as he smiled at his emerald turtle. "There's no way I could ever take any offer seriously when I'd already given my heart away a long time ago," Leo said and then waited for an eye roll from Raph at the sappy statement. But he watched as Raph ducked his eyes and allowed a small smile to take over his features. He smiled again and decided to give Raph a break since he knew how hard Raph always tried to hide the flushed reaction. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the side of Raph's face before he began speaking again. "I love you for you Raph," he said, his voice suddenly deeper as he continued, "but I swear there are times when I simply hear your voice or see this hard emerald body and desperately need to be inside you." Raphael churred immediately and Leo smiled at the deep rumbling sound as he nuzzled his face against the side of Raph's face. "Or need you inside me."

"Shit," Raph said, reaching a hand up to grip the back of Leo's neck before he covered his mouth for a tongue twisting kiss. Another loud churr rolled up his throat and he released Leo's mouth only so a few more curse words could escape as Leo's words replayed in his head. He let his hands move down over Leo's shell again so he could run his fingers along Leo's tail.

"I want you to claim me, Raphie," Leo suddenly said, pressing his lower plastron hard against Raphael. "I have had other offers, but every part of me is for you. And I want you to prove it again tonight."

Raph growled at the thought of the others after his mate and used his nose to push Leo's face to the side so he could reach Leo's neck with his teeth. He listened to Leo's appreciative churr as his teeth nipped at Leo's neck. He began to slide his tongue over Leo's neck before asking, "You sure you don't want more rest first?"

Leo shook his head. "Bring it on, Raphael."


	14. Chapter 14

Donnie saw Usagi off to his own dimension and quickly headed upstairs and into Mikey and Woody's apartment. He pulled a bag from their bedroom closet and stuffed some supplies into it before he raced outside and began sprinting across rooftops until he reached Mikey's makeshift campsite across from Woody's hospital room. He couldn't currently see in Woody's dark hospital room but he could see the open window. He sat and watched and waited until he saw his little brother's dark shadowy form leave the window and make his way up the side of the building to the hospital roof.

He stood as Mikey landed next to him and noticed that Mikey's orange mask was missing. The loss of the bright color seemed to make his little brother's sad features stand out even more. He hadn't seen Mikey since they'd all split up on their last patrol and he quickly pulled him into a hug as he remembered the panic he'd felt when Mikey and Leo had been trapped in the burning building.

"Surgery is tomorrow," Mikey muttered as he slumped into Donnie's hug and rested his forehead against Donnie's shoulder.

"I know."

"Thanks for getting me back on time, D."

Donnie nodded even though Mikey couldn't see him. "Did Woody wake up? Did he see you?"

"Yes. But he seems pretty medicated." He pulled back and met Donnie's eyes. "What do you know?"

Donnie released Mikey from the hug and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "He had another seizure earlier today and they switched his seizure medication. It's made him pretty sleepy."

Mikey pursed his lips as his eyes shot back across the street to Woody's window. "Should I be worried about the surgery, Donnie?"

Donnie swallowed. He opened his mouth and shut it again when he realized he didn't know how to answer Mikey. Finally, he said, "Sadie says he has a great surgeon. And they said the tumor -,"

"Franklin."

Donnie paused. But he was fluent in Mikey, so his pause didn't last long before he continued. "Franklin is in a great spot for resection, so-,"

"Donnie," Mikey said, interrupting him again.

Donnie met Mikey's blue eyes and thought about how much older Michelangelo appeared. He swallowed again. "I don't want you to worry too much," he finally said.

"But it's okay to worry, right?" Mikey asked. "Being worried doesn't mean I don't think it'll work?"

"Being worried is expected, Mikey," Donnie said. "Completely normal."

Mikey nodded and stared off towards the hospital again.

"Here," Donnie finally said as he lifted the bag he'd brought so he could hand it over to Mike. "I didn't think I could talk you into going home to clean up and rest so I packed you some clean gear at least."

Mikey gave Donnie a small smile and began digging through the bag. He tied on a new mask and swapped out his knee and elbow pads at least before he sat down on the pile of blankets he already had stashed there. He was slightly surprised when Donnie sat down next to him, but when Donnie lifted an arm, Mikey didn't hesitate to scoot over into the side hug.

"So where the heck did Usagi transport you guys? Leo didn't say."

"I'm not surprised," Mikey said, yawning. "That place, although cool on the outside, will probably give Leo nightmares." It wasn't funny, but he grinned up at Donatello anyway and told him what had happened since the fire.

* * *

The way the sun hit the building in the morning allowed Mikey to see into Woody's hospital room perfectly. Into other people's hospital rooms perfectly as well and he was left to wonder why more humans didn't close their blinds as he did his best to focus solely on Woody's room so his eyes wouldn't be scarred from accidentally seeing more than he bargained for as the people in the other rooms wandered around in their half-open hospital gowns.

He could also see Miwa and Sam asleep in side by side chairs in Woody's room, but mainly kept his eyes pinned on Woody's pale face until Woody's eyes finally opened.

Woody looked around the room and appeared disappointed before he finally looked down and saw a familiar orange cloth wrapped around his wrist. Mikey watched him smile and touch the cloth with his other hand before raising his eyes to where Mikey sat on the rooftop edge. Mike wasn't sure if Woody could see him with the space between them, so he pulled out his T-phone and angled it enough for the sun to reflect off the screen and flash a light towards Woody.

Woody pulled his T-phone and hit the speed dial for his turtle. He smiled wider when Mikey immediately answered.

"I was worried I'd dreamed your return, Mikester" Woody said, groggily. "Thanks for leaving something behind." He heard Mikey huff out a small breath as he sent a smile to Miwa and Sam as they both stirred awake in their chairs and stood to stretch. They mentioned something about going for coffee and left him alone in the room to talk to Michelangelo.

"When I get home, I want you to cook me all my favorites for at least a month. Breakfast, lunch and dinner," Woody said. He paused and sadly noted that his normally talkative turtle was being extremely quiet. He pushed his brain to work so he could keep talking. "The food here is terrible anyway but now this morning I'm not even allowed to eat anything for breakfast." He waited and still got no reaction from Mikey. "I can't really see you, Mike. It'd be nice to hear your voice."

Mikey pushed his fearful thoughts away. If Woody heard how upset he was, Woody would start trying to cheer him up. And Mikey wasn't about to let Woody worry about him.

"I was just enjoying the sound of _your_ voice, Woods," he said with his own voice full of cheer. "You kick Franklin out and I'll let you write the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for a year."

Woody laughed. "I'm going to hold you to that." He looked up as his door opened and Sadie, April and Casey walked in.

"The nurses are coming to get you," Sadie quietly said to him as she leaned over to give him a hug.

Mikey heard her through the phone and blinked his eyes a few times as they suddenly filled with tears and his chest got tight.

Woody pointed to his phone and held up a finger to Sadie. He watched her nod and then move to leave the room again, ushering Casey and April out with her.

"The sooner you get through this part, the sooner you can come home, right?" Mikey said, surprised at how normal his voice sounded.

"Right," Woody said, willing himself not to look upset as he glanced out the window. "You're going to stay right there until it's over?"

"I'm not moving from this spot."

"Listen, Michelangelo," Woody said, "just in case Franklin causes trouble today-,"

"Woodrow," Mikey said, a warning tone in his voice. "You're not saying goodbye to me."

"Promise me you'll be okay, though," Woody said.

"Woody, please," Mikey said, scrunching his forehead and pressing his free hand against it.

"I love you, Mikester," Woody said.

Mikey took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Just come back to me. Cause I love you too, Woody."

Mikey hung up and watched as the nurses entered Woody's room and began to wheel his bed out into the hallway. He almost jumped when he felt a hand land on his shoulder and looked up to see all three of his big brothers peering down at him. Donnie had spent the night on the roof with him but he had no idea when Leo and Raph had arrived.

His lower lip jutted out and his eyes welled up and he was soon enclosed tightly in the middle of a four turtle hug.

"Okay, okay," he said after a few moments as he pushed their crushing arms and hands away so he could breathe again.

* * *

"Check this out," Raph said, tossing the handful of crackers he had into the air before catching them in his mouth.

"That's weak," Mikey said, picking up his own handful of crackers from the collection of snacks Miwa and Sam had dropped off for them before they had headed back into the hospital to wait out Woody's surgery with Casey, April and Sadie. "Watch this," Mikey said as he tossed his crackers into the air from behind his back and expertly leaned back to catch them in his mouth.

Leo and Donnie sat watching them, both smiling secretly at Raph's ability to get Mikey to eat something even though he'd turned down breakfast earlier. Leo was about to turn to Donnie to ask him a question when movement caught his eye. He was on his feet with his katana pulled before he even realized it was the wolves descending on their group from all sides.

Mikey heard Leo yell, "On your feet," and his eyes widened as he saw two wolves head towards him. He pulled his kusarigama chain and had it wrapped around both wolves, knocking them into each other as they slumped down together on the ground.

"Are you kidding me with this today? Of all days!" he yelled at them. He pulled his chain back and watched the wolves spin and then quickly retreat as he swung around towards the wolf Donnie was currently fighting. He swung his chain again and caught the wolf by the ankle. One quick jerk and the wolf yelped as he went down and his face began to scrape across the ground as Mikey pulled the chain once more.

It was rare to see Mikey actually angry and Donnie actually jumped back in surprise to find the wolf he'd been fighting quickly disappear as Mikey yanked him away.

Raphael too watched in surprise as he saw anger take over Mikey's expression as that kusarigama chain flung the third wolf across the rooftop. He watched in awestruck shock as the wolf was flung over the edge of the building.

Leo went up against a wolf who snarled at him as he swung his katana towards him and he found himself actually grinning when the wolf pull twin sais from his belt. The wolf immediately tried to disarm him of one of his swords with a dirty move that Raphael had been pulling on him since they were children. He managed to disarm the wolf instead and swung towards Raph to see if Raph had seen it.

"Raphael!" he yelled when he found Raph distractedly watching Mikey instead of his own shell. A wolf flew towards Raph and actually managed to grab him by the arm before Leo could get Raph's full name out of his mouth.

Raphael quickly recovered, though, and swung the wolf off his arm as easily as if he'd just swung a kitten off his arm. The wolf caught his feet underneath himself and took off after the wolf that Leo had just disarmed.

"They're gettin away!" Raph yelled as he took off after them.

"Donnie stay with Mikey," Leo called out over his shoulder as he took off after Raphael. "I'm sorry about this, Mike!"

"You okay, Mikey?" Donnie asked as Leo and Raph disappeared from view. He watched his little brother pant angrily as he stared at the edge of the building where the last wolf he'd taken down had disappeared.

"Unexpected ambush while waiting for my husband to get out of brain surgery," Mikey said. "I'm great."

"You really went after those wolves," Donnie said. "Angry Mikey is apparently a ferocious Mikey."

Mikey gave his big brother a half smile for the compliment before sitting back down on his makeshift campsite to finish waiting.

"They can attack all they want. I'm not moving from this spot."

* * *

Leo easily caught up to Raphael and they raced after the two wolves they could still see.

"Seriously?" Leo said suddenly and Raphael jerked his head in Leo's direction to see what the problem was. "The last scratch _just_ healed." Leo said, rubbing his fingers over Raphael's arm as they ran. He scowled at the large wolf scratches through his mark.

"Sorry, babe," Raph said, smirking as he watched Leo glare at him.

Leo turned his attention ahead of them again. "We need to be careful. They led me and Mikey right into a trap last time."

"Don't worry, Fearless," Raph said. But a moment later he grabbed Leo's arm and skidded to a stop when the wolves they were chasing stopped and turned to look back at them as if they were expecting something to happen. "Shit," he whispered and flung himself towards Leo to try to knock them both out of the way of the loud crackling explosion that came from the rooftop shed to the left of them.


	15. Chapter 15

Akito and Machi's tutor left them at lunchtime. It was earlier than normal, but the tutor was aware that their uncle's surgery was that day and when neither of her little pupils were able to answer simple questions about their assignments, she thought it was best to call it quits.

Akito looked out the window in the direction of the hospital and then over at Machi. She sat on their couch but hadn't turned on the television. Instead she just sat staring back at him. Their fathers had left before breakfast that morning in order to go sit with Uncle Mikey and it was a little strange to think that almost their entire apartment building was empty with the exception of the two of them and little Gabe, who was upstairs being watched by Master Splinter. Akito sent his grandfather a message that he would feed Machi lunch and keep an eye on her.

Which he did. He just _forgot_ to mention what they were going to do after lunch.

He thought about leaving Machi behind, but he wasn't about to leave her alone and there was no way to drop her off with their grandfather without providing an explanation for what he was going to do. So he led Machi upstairs to the dojo, strapped on his katana and told her to grab her weapons. He smiled when his little sister didn't even ask any questions and huffed out an actual laugh when he saw her snag a couple extra throwing stars to take with them.

Machi practically beamed at him when they hit the rooftop. He felt himself hesitate though once they were standing in the bright sunlight. Even he had never run topside during the daylight hours. Plus, he was beginning to consider the wide distances between the rooftops and wondered if Machi would be able to make the jumps.

He looked down at her to voice his concerns but she took off before he could even open his mouth.

"Machi, wait!" he said, sprinting to catch up with her.

"Come on!" she said, grinning over her shoulder at him as her feet pushed off their rooftop.

He watched as she easily sailed through the air and landed on the rooftop of the next building. He made the jump as well and landed next to her.

"Did you see that?" she asked, practically vibrating with excitement.

"Did _you_ see that?" he asked, pushing on her smaller shoulder. "You weren't even looking where you were landing! You were looking at me!" He was trying and failing to scowl at her in the face of her clear triumph. "Okay, so I don't have to worry about you making the jumps, but we have to be careful. It's the middle of the day and we can't let anyone see us."

"Right. Right. Frosty, quiet ninjas. Got it."

Akito frowned down at her. "I'd like to hear you say that around dad," he said sarcastically.

"We're going to the hospital, right?" she asked, ignoring his sarcasm. "What's your plan for explaining to dad and papa why we came out?"

Akito frowned again as he turned and began leading them quickly towards the next rooftop.

"Hey, I go on patrols now where I'm in charge of a whole group. I can certainly watch one troublesome little sister for a couple of blocks."

Machi scowled at him and whipped her tail out to try to grab one of his ankles. He spun around as soon as he felt her tail brush his leg and laughed as he managed to avoid her attempts to grab him.

"If you're attempting to prove that you're not troublesome, then I have to tell you that trying to trip me is not helping your case."

Machi stuck her tongue out at him and continued to follow him over the rooftops. She knew their fathers would not be happy to see her out like this, but she wasn't about to point that out to Akito. She was just thrilled to have the chance to run outside and fly through the air from one ledge to the next. Plus, they hadn't seen their Uncle Woody in days and it wasn't fair that they had to sit at home and wait for news. Even Shadow had been allowed to go visit him in the hospital a couple times. She had told Machi that it smelled funny and the food Uncle Woody had shared with her tasted horrible, but Machi still wished she could've gone too.

She was thinking about the unfairness of her _younger_ cousin getting to do things that she wasn't allowed to do when the wind was almost knocked out of her by Akito's arm as he threw it in front of her to get her to stop in her tracks. She glared up at him but quickly turned to see what had caught his attention that could've made his eyes go so wide.

"Are those wolves?" Machi asked him in a loud whisper.

The two of them stood two rooftops away from where their fathers and uncles were fighting off a pack of wolves. They hadn't been spotted but Akito still pushed Machi with one of his arms until she was situated behind him.

"Hey!" Machi said, pushing at the arm that was trying to keep her out of sight, which also meant she couldn't see what was going on either.

"I've seen them before," Akito said, more to himself than to his sister, although she at least stopped fighting him to ask when he'd seen them. Flashes of memory came to him. He saw his dad, back when he'd been only Master Leonardo to Akito, chained to a wall in a dark room. But before he got to his dad, he'd had to go past a couple of wolves at the cave entrance. But they had known his uncle so they had let Akito into the cave without trouble.

Akito quickly debated with himself over what to do. Part of him wanted to keep going forward to that rooftop and jump into the fight. But that would mean either leaving Machi here by herself or dragging her along. Akito would admit that Machi had pretty amazing ninja skills, but their fathers would probably kill him if he brought her over there.

So despite her protest at being pulled along, he moved them behind a stairway entrance and turned back to watch the fight. Although it didn't appear to be much of a fight, he realized, as he watched his Uncle Mikey take three wolves down in quick succession. He also watched his dad quickly disarm another wolf.

"Did you see that?" Akito asked Machi as the wolf's sais were knocked out of his hands. "Swords – one. Sais – zero."

"I'd like to hear you say that around papa," Machi muttered as she let her fingers trail over the handles of the sais she had strapped to her small belt. She felt her head start buzzing and quickly reached up to grip her temples. The last time this had happened the only thing that made her head feel better had been meditation, but there was no way she could sit and meditate right now.

"What are you doing?" Akito asked as he caught her grimacing and clutching her head. "What's wrong?" A sudden fear hit him as he remembered that Uncle Woody's first signs of trouble had been headaches.

"There's a crackling noise," Machi managed to say. Suddenly she looked up and watched as their fathers began to sprint off the rooftop, leaving Uncle Donnie and Uncle Mikey behind. "We have to stop them!" Machi said, taking off in a sprint to follow their dads. "There's a crackling noise!"

"That doesn't make sense!" Akito exclaimed, racing after her. They bypassed the roof where the fight had just occurred and passed by unnoticed by their two uncles.

Machi ignored Akito's request that she explain and did her best to run faster after their dads. They were still a few rooftops behind them when she saw them both stop in their tracks and her head began to buzz again. And this time when she reached her tail out to trip Akito in order to stop him, she actually caught him off guard and he went down hard and landed on his belly. She flew down to the ground next to him just as the loud, crackling explosion ripped through the shed next to their fathers.

* * *

Raphael groaned out in actual pain when he woke up. But he breathed in Leo's scent on the inhale and pried his eyes open despite the pain. He felt immediate relief when he saw Leo's blue eyes peering back at him. Leo didn't look like he was in pain, so Raph hoped that meant Leo wasn't injured from that explosion. Unlike himself. He let his eyes slide shut again and took in another deep inhale. His chest and shell both hurt, making it extremely difficult to breathe.

"You okay?" Leo asked him slowly.

Raph's eyes flew open when Leo spoke and he did his best to jerk his prone body into an upright position.

"Stop! Stop!" Leo said, trying to grab Raph by the arms to hold him still. "Jeezus, Raph, stop! You have a huge crack in your shell. Hold still!"

But the more Leo spoke, the more Raphael struggled against this turtle who looked like his mate and smelled like his mate but whose voice didn't sound like his Leo's voice. He stared harder at Leo and noticed the faint difference in his face. Leo looked younger than he should. His eyes moved quickly to Leo's upper arm, which was bare.

Leo pulled his hands away from Raph, although he continued to kneel in front of him. He watched the panic grow in Raph's eyes and it quickly tugged at his stomach to see Raphael so upset. He knew what Raphael was looking for. He quickly opened his mouth and said, "My mark from my Raph is on the other arm." He moved his opposite shoulder forward and watched as this Raph's eyes quickly examined the permanent mark.

Raph sat breathing heavily, mostly due to the pain of sitting up. He frowned at this Leo and glanced around the darkened room they sat in. There was a faint ceiling light but no windows. And just concrete walls with the exception of a row of bars that defined this as a cell. Looking through the bars only revealed a large empty room on the other side of them.

"I am Leonardo. Just not your Leo. Okay?" Leo asked, holding his hands up in front of him, doing his best to calm Raphael. "I believe _your_ Leo spent some time with my brothers a few years ago."

"Five years ago," Raph rasped out. He watched this Leo tilt his head and narrow his eyes at him. "Voice sounds weird, right?"

Leo nodded. "Raph said your Leo's voice was similar, but-,"

"But not the same," Raph said. "Where are we? And where is my Leo?"

Leo shook his head. "I haven't seen your Leo. I'd like to. I owe him a thanks. He's the reason my Raph came looking for me five years ago."

Raphael shook his head. "No, yer the reason he came lookin for ya. My Leo just shoved his stubborn ass there a little faster." He watched this Leo smile and Raph suddenly understood what Leo meant when he had told him all those years ago that looking at the other Raphael had made Leo miss him even more.

"All I know is that a bunch of wolves captured me and brought me here. I guess I'm in your dimension? They wanted me to pretend to be your Leo and get some foxes to follow me back to them. Or something. I was kind of drugged up on tranquilizers when they first started talking to me. But either way, I refused to do what they wanted and they've left me in here ever since."

Raphael growled.

"I take it you know who the foxes are?"

"Yeah, and now they think they can use me as bait to get them here."

"When they first dragged you in I thought maybe you were my Raph." Leo's eyes looked back out through the bars. "He's never had to find me in another dimension before. But Donnie's got all kind of new machines since he got his PhD, so I'm sure Raphael is looking for me."

"He's definitely lookin for ya," Raph said immediately. Even if this wasn't his Leo, this was still _a Leo_ and he was feeling a strong urge to do what he could to get rid of the worry he could feel radiating off the turtle. "How long have ya been here?"

Leo turned back to him and shrugged. "There's no sunlight. It's hard to say. A couple days maybe?"

"I just hopped to another dimension last night to get my Leo back. Yer Raph is gonna do whatever it takes to get here to ya."

Leo smiled at this Raphael and nodded as he recognized Raphael's attempt to cheer him up. "So you had to dimension hop again for him, huh? Sounds like your Leo gets into a lot of trouble."

Raph huffed out a laugh and immediately regretted it when it sent a pain down to his chest and out to his cracked shell. "Trouble follows him around," he managed to say.

Leo smiled. He knew it was true. This might've been the first time he'd ended up in a different dimension, but it certainly wasn't the first time he himself had gotten into trouble. "Well, I'm sure your Leo knows how lucky he is to have you watching his back." He watched Raph smile and quickly duck his head. "Can I look at your shell again now that you're awake and upright?"

Raph nodded and watched as Leo stood and walked behind him. He heard Leo immediately begin to grumble under his breath as his hands lightly traced over the top left side of his shell.

"This is bad, Raph. Like you should be home on bedrest with Donnie gluing you back together bad. It's a deep wound. Something must've hit you pretty hard. I'm not even sure how you're sitting up right now."

Raph almost shrugged but caught himself before his shoulders could even start the movement. He wasn't about to admit just how much pain the crack was causing. He wondered if there was a nonchalant way to just lie back down on the floor.

"Those wolves clearly didn't think a tranquilizer was going to work on you," Leo muttered. "What happened?"

"Explosion," Raph said, giving in and allowing himself to lie back down on his uninjured side. "Leo and I were chasin the wolves when they must have set off an explosion." His eyes were growing heavy and he allowed them to close. "Leo better be okay."


	16. Chapter 16

The explosion was loud. Donnie and Mikey's heads jerked towards each other as they immediately realized the explosion was meant for their big brothers.

"You can stay. I've got it," Donnie said quickly when he saw the hesitation on Mikey's face. He jumped to his feet and sprinted in the direction of the smoke curling towards the sky.

Mikey stared after him and then glanced down at Woody's hospital room. Their human family members weren't even in there. They were sitting somewhere in a waiting room designated for surgery patient family members. Mikey was simply staring at an empty room.

"Turtles first," he muttered as he pushed himself to his feet and sprinted to catch up with Donnie. He came upon not only Donnie but Akito and Machi as well just a few rooftops away. "What are you doing here?" Mikey asked them as he watched Machi clutch her head while Donnie was checking them over for injuries.

"We saw them – them running," Akito said, struggling to get the words out around the ringing in his ears. He glanced over at Machi and frowned when he saw her continue to clutch at her head.

"They were over there," Machi said, pointing to the now empty rooftop where the shed had exploded.

"You two okay to move?" Donnie asked. When they both nodded, Donnie led the way and they raced towards the rooftop Machi pointed to.

There was debris everywhere, mainly large pieces of metal and wood that had formerly been part of the shed. They began digging through it, desperate to find Raph and Leo.

"D," Mikey said as he picked up a large shard of metal covered with fresh blood.

Donnie stopped what he was doing when he heard the sharpness in Mikey's voice and looked over at to see what Michelangelo had found. It had a sharp pointed end that could have easily run through one of their brothers. But where were their brothers now?

"If this was another trap, they could've already carried them away before we got here," Donnie murmured over to Mikey.

Machi heard her Uncle Donnie despite his lowered voice. And she didn't think her fathers were up here either. She watched as Akito continued to frantically move debris aside in his search. Machi crept over the debris to the edge of the building and peered over the side as she walked. But she stopped when she spotted movement in the first alleyway.

"They're down here!" she called out excitedly to the group behind her.

Akito and Mikey reached her first and she quickly followed them as they scaled down the side of the building with Donnie close behind. They found Raphael kneeling with his shell to them and with Leo's unconscious head pulled into his lap.

Raphael finished wrapping a bandage around Leo's head and carefully lifted him as he stood. He turned and found himself face to face with his family members.

Well, not _his_ family members.

"He has a head injury. It's still bleeding. And he feels cold," he said in a rush, feeling too panicked to try to explain to them who he was exactly. "What happened to him?"

"Who are you?" Machi asked, recognizing faster than the others that this was not in fact her papa carrying her dad.

Donnie looked back and forth between Machi and Raphael before finally recognizing that this was not their brother, Raphael. He said slowly in a low voice, "Put. Him. Down."

"Whoa, whoa," Raph said, taking a small step back while clutching this Leo tighter to his plastron. "I'm just here lookin for my Leo. I didn't hurt yers. I just found him down here and bandaged him up. If he was awake, he'd tell ya he knows me." He looked back and forth between this Mikey and this Donnie's faces. "He disappeared a few years ago for a couple months, right? He was with me and my brothers durin that time."

Donnie exchanged a quick look with Mikey before stepping towards this other version of Raphael. "Give him to me anyway," Donnie said, pulling Leo away from the stranger so he could begin examining him.

Machi scooted closer to her dad and rested a hand on his arm. "But where's _my_ papa?" she whispered.

"There was an explosion. Have you seen our Raphael?" Mikey asked, resting a hand on Machi's small shoulder. He watched this other Raphael shake his head. "If Leo landed down here from the blast, maybe Raph was thrown somewhere else," he said. "I'm going to check."

Akito watched Uncle Donnie nod at his Uncle Mikey before Michelangelo took off to do a perimeter run and Uncle Donnie continued to check over his dad. He frowned and felt his anger grow as he stared at his unconscious father. He knew those wolves were part of the evil group his fox uncle had led and Akito had a terrible feeling that he and probably Machi too were the reason those wolves were here now in this dimension. That it was somehow his and Machi's fault that their dad was hurt and their pops was missing.

He turned his back to the group and pulled out his T-phone. Uncle Donnie had recently shown him how to use the phones to search for each other's signals and he forced it to search for his missing father. He took advantage of his distracted family members and took off in a sprint towards the blinking signal. He wasn't about to let anyone else get hurt on his behalf.

"I guess if yer surprised to see me, then that means you haven't seen another Leo, huh?" Raph asked as he continued to keep his eyes on this Leo.

"No," Donnie said. Leo had several injuries. His shoulder had a nasty, deep cut and he was covered in other scrapes and bruises, but it was the head wound that had him the most worried. He tried to apply more pressure where it was needed most.

"I don't see Raph anywhere, dude," Mike said, landing on the ground beside them again.

"We need to get him home. This head wound is still bleeding out," Donnie said.

"I'll carry him," Raph said, bending down and lifting Leo back into his arms before Donnie could protest.

"Where's Akito?" Mikey asked.

Donnie nearly growled in frustration. Leo inured, Raph missing, an extra Raphael, and now Akito had disappeared as well?

"I'm taking Leo home," Donnie said. The medic in him wanted to focus only on the patient in front of him. And he found himself desperately wishing for Leo to wake up and take over the leader role as he watched Mikey once again struggle with what the next move should be. Even though they had two family members missing, Donnie didn't want to send Mikey to go search for them, especially on his own, and especially when he knew Mikey should be waiting to hear about Woody.

"You guys live in yer nice Hamato Engineering building, Donnie?" Raphael asked, already heading that way with Leo in his arms.

Donnie nodded to him and turned back to Mikey. "Call Miwa, Mikey," he said finally. "We need help. Miwa, Casey, April. They can search for Raph and Akito and the other Leo and you can stay at your post for Woody." He waited only for Mikey to nod at him before he turned to follow Raph. "Let's go, Machi. Stay close."

Donnie moved to catch up with Raphael, making sure that Machi was right with him the whole way home. They rushed Leo into his lab where he kept a well-stocked medic corner.

"He's cold," Raphael repeated, setting Leo down gently on the cot and doing his best to move out of Donnie's way. "Ya know, colder than normal." He pulled Leo's blood stained mask off his face and let it drop to the floor.

"He just needs more fluids," Donnie murmured. He pulled some clean gauze out and pressed it to Leo's head. "Keep pressure here," he said quickly and released the task to Raphael so that he could hook a saline bag up to Leo's arm.

"Uncle Donnie?" Machi asked, her voice small as she stood back and watched the hurried medical help.

Raphael tore his eyes away from Leo's bleeding head and looked over at her. Although he'd noticed the two foxes earlier, he hadn't thought to ask who they were. This little one looked scared. "Ya okay, kid?" he asked her.

Her eyes were wide and she didn't know how to answer him. He looked so much like her papa that she could almost pretend that he was the real thing, especially with him looking at her with so much concern.

Donnie turned to her as well as he'd almost forgotten that she was there while he'd been making a mental list of Leo's injuries. "Machi why don't you go up to Master Splinter's apartment, okay?

"Will daddy be okay?" she asked.

"Of course. You know how tough he is. He just needs a little rest. Head upstairs now, okay? Gabe is up there and I'm sure grandpa could use some help with the little guy."

Machi nodded and slowly backed away. Donnie held his breath until he heard the stairwell door close behind her.

"He's lost too much blood," Donnie finally said when she was gone, thankful that she was no longer here to witness this. He moved to a small fridge in his medic station and pulled out a bag of Leo's own blood to give him. He'd stocked blood from all of them for this very reason.

Raphael applied more pressure to Leo's head as he vaguely heard what Donnie had said. Instead, he stared off to where the little fox had just been standing. "That's his daughter? They have kids?"

Donnie nodded quickly as he hooked the blood up to the IV stand as well.

"And Master Splinter is still here?" Raphael asked, his voice soft.

Donnie didn't stop what he was doing, but his eyes did dart over to this Raphael's face for a moment before he nodded again. He quickly remembered that these turtle brothers were without a Master Splinter.

"His Raphael should be here," Raph said, pushing away the old feeling of grief he felt when he thought of the loss of his own Master Splinter. He slid his free hand down the side of Leo's cool face.

"You're going to have to do for now," Donnie said.

He continued to oversee the blood transfusion and was relieved when Leo's color began to slowly return. He let out another breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He still needed Leo to wake up, but Leo's chances were already so much better than they had been only an hour before.

"I know you're here to find your own Leo," Donatello said up to this other Raph, "but you have really good timing. If Leo had been left there until we could've found him, who knows how much more blood he would've lost." He paused for a moment before murmuring, "And our family has enough crises going on right now."

* * *

Akito crept into the warehouse where his T-phone had led him and did his best to keep alert for the wolves. He couldn't see any of them. But he could smell them. He felt a little nervous as he realized just how alone he was, especially because he was _never_ alone. Ever. But he couldn't turn back when he knew his pops was somewhere in this building.

He slid out one of his swords and crept along a darkened wall. But he realized only after he turned a corner that he'd walked right into a trap. He was disarmed surprisingly fast and face down on the ground before he had time to react.

"Get off," Akito grunted, struggling against the heavy weight of a wolf his back. Four more wolves soon circled them and his only relief came from finally seeing his pops. He was lying on the ground inside a cell and appeared to be unconscious, but he was at least in Akito's sights.

"I told you grabbing just the red turtle would be enough to get him to come to us," one of the wolves said triumphantly to the others.

"We didn't have a choice. We couldn't find the real blue one," another wolf sneered back at him.

"Stop struggling," the wolf on his back said down to Akito as he pulled Akito's other sword off his back and handed it off to one of the circling wolves. "We're here to rescue you from this human-infested world and bring you back with us. You don't even realize you have a true family waiting for you. It's your birthright. Your legacy is to lead the rebellion."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Akito growled up at him.

"Get off of him!"

Akito's eyes went back to the cell where his pops was sprawled out and he spotted what must've been the other Raph's Leo in the cell with him. He almost smiled when he saw his dad's counterpart glare out at the wolves with that famous intimidating gaze and thought about how he was going to have to work on his own intimidating stare.

The wolves ignored the other Leo and instead turned back to Akito. "Are you going to stay with us willingly or do we have to put you in the cell until we get our hands on your sister?"

"You're not getting anywhere near her," Akito growled back at him.

"Sounds like he's choosing the cell for now."

Akito struggled but unfortunately he was no match for all five wolves carting him off towards the cell at once.

Leo had been stripped of his weapons and perhaps that was the reason the wolves were underestimating him as they opened the cell door to push Akito inside. Leo quickly knocked one wolf back and away from the young fox, freeing the fox's arms and he watched as the fox used a similar move to knock another one of the wolves away from him.

Leo's mind quickly flew through some possibilities. The fox obviously had some ninjitsu training, but he wondered if the two of them could get past the foxes, without their weapons, while also carrying the injured Raphael. His attention was quickly taken away from the struggle as he realized Raph was awake again behind them.

"Akito!" Raph said, doing his best to push himself upright. The crack in his shell felt possibly worse than it had earlier and it made using his left arm almost impossible. But he ignored it as he watched his son fight against the wolf pack. He and Leo hadn't had a chance to tell Akito what they'd learned about his birth parents or to warn him about the wolves or to take him off patrols. And Raph's heart sank a little as he again wondered where his Leonardo was if Akito was here.

"Pops!" Akito said, immediately relieved to see his father sitting upright and talking to him. He was clearly injured, but at least he was awake.

The other Leo tightened his hold on the wolf he'd just pinned as he stopped to look between Raphael and the young fox as he realized for the first time that these wolves weren't just after some foxes, they were after Raph and Leo's _children_.

"What are ya doin here?" Raph grunted out, trying to stand.

"I'm saving you," Akito responded and Raph watched as his son had the gall to actually grin back at him before he kicked a wolf away from him.

Leo had to smile himself when he saw the grin on the fox's face. This fox may have been trained to mimic his own fluid fighting style, but he'd clearly picked up a few things from Raphael as well.

"Everyone freeze!" another voice rang out over their fight and surprisingly, everyone did. Especially when they saw the struggling red-furred bundle the wolf was holding.

A deep growl rose up Raphael's throat as he watched this wolf hold his daughter up for display by the scruff of her neck. He was on his feet in the next moment.

"Machi," Akito whispered and he felt his muscles tighten.

"I said freeze," the wolf said, narrowing his eyes at Raphael. "We have what we came for. Its time to move," he said to the rest of the group.

"Lemme go," Machi said, doing her best to reach her hands behind her to try to claw at the wolf holding her.

"Let go of her!" Akito yelled. His muscles were so tense now he couldn't move if he wanted to. He felt only anger at seeing his little sister handled so roughly.

"Get yer fuckin hands off of her," Raphael growled and he began to force his body forward towards the cell exit.

Akito suddenly felt a new surge of energy running through his arms. Energy unlike anything he'd felt before. It was strong and electric. He saw a flash of white and roared out as he pushed this new energy forward. It traveled down his arms and through his hands. He could practically see it leave his body and move across the room like a wave as almost everyone else in the room suddenly tumbled to the floor.


	17. Chapter 17

Akito stood frozen and wide-eyed as he stared at the bodies on the ground. His eyes rose and he found only Machi standing. Even the wolf who'd held her hostage before was now laid out flat on the ground behind her. Machi stared wide-eyed back at him. They remained like that for only a moment before they raced to Raphael and carefully tried to wake him up.

"What the hell was that?" Raph asked groggily a moment later as he opened his eyes and saw his two kids staring back at him. Safe and sound. His kids were safe.

"Raph!" Mikey said as soon as he turned the corner and found the group they'd been looking for. He was followed by Casey, Miwa and a number of Hamato ninja. "We found you. Your T-phone signal is still working, dude."

"Raph, man, what happened?" Casey said as he joined the kids by Raph's side and eyed the damage to his friend's shell.

"Get that Leo up," Raph said as he allowed Mikey and Casey to help him into a sitting position before he pushed their hands away from him. "Where's my Leo?" It hadn't escaped his attention that his Leo wasn't with this search party. He pulled Machi into his lap when she got close enough and she quickly relaxed against him as he moved a hand to the back of her neck and began to massage over the scruff that the bastard had gripped to carry her around.

Casey and Akito moved to begin to rouse the other Leo awake as Miwa directed her ninja to begin tying up the still unconscious pack of wolves.

"Leo's pretty banged up, Raph" Mikey said in a low voice as he actually shuddered when he saw the crack in Raph's' shell. He remained by Raph's side because he wasn't altogether convinced that Raph was going to stay upright on his own. "Although I'm not sure which one of you is worse off right now. But at least you're awake."

"He's not awake?" Raph's eyes widened. "Mikey, tell me right now where he is. And why isn't he awake?"

Mikey ignored Raph's growl as his attention was turned towards the other Leo as he sat upright as well. Even though he'd already seen another Raphael earlier, it was still a shock to see another version of Leonardo.

"Relax, Raph," Mikey said, turning back to his actual big brother. He figured if he could force himself to be calm and leave his post outside Woody's hospital room long enough to rescue his family members, then Raph could be calm as well. "There's another Raphael here and he found Leo after the explosion." He watched this other Leo perk up at the mention that his Raph was here somewhere as well. "He and Donnie brought Leo home to work on him."

"But he's okay?" Raph asked.

"Donnie's got him. I'm sure he will be," Mikey said. He hadn't heard either way, actually, but he wasn't about to say that to Raphael. He reached down and tried to help Raph to his feet, but Raph pushed his hands away again.

"Let's go, Raph," the other Leo said, rising quickly and moving to Raphael's side. He could see that Raph didn't want help getting to his feet. But he also knew better than the others in the room just how deep that crack in his shell went. Raph wasn't going to be able to stand on his own without immense pain, let alone walk home. "Our turtles are waiting for us," he murmured to Raphael and smiled when Raph relented and allowed him to lift him to his feet. He dragged Raph's good arm around his shoulders and they began to move forward. "We'll try walking like this, but if it doesn't work, or takes too long, I will pick your stubborn ass up and carry you home," Leo whispered to him.

Raph huffed out a small laugh and looked back only to make sure his kids were following them as they made their way out of the cell and across the room towards the exit.

"You're sure you've got him?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, Mike," Raph answered for this Leo. "Get back to yer post."

Michelangelo didn't ask again. He turned and disappeared from the room to head back to the hospital.

"I'm gonna help Miwa and the other ninjas get these guys back to headquarters," Casey said, relieved to have an excuse to be outside of that dreary hospital waiting room. He'd encouraged April to stay with Sadie and Sam, but had practically leapt from the room with Miwa when they got the call for help from Mikey.

"We'll hold them until Usagi and the other authorities from their dimension can come retrieve them," Miwa said. "What happened here anyway? Pulse blaster knock you guys out? Did it hurt you two?" she asked as she gave Akito and Machi each a big hug.

"Not a pulse blaster," Machi said, quietly. "It was Akito."

"Akito what?" Miwa asked, confused.

"We'll talk about it later," Raph said gruffly and Miwa looked surprised for only a moment before she nodded to him and gave the kids another hug before they left the warehouse to head home.

* * *

Leo opened his bleary eyes and smiled when he saw Raphael staring back at him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Raph huffed out a laugh. "I haven't even spoken yet. How'd ya know it was me?"

Leo slid his eyes shut again as he began to feel pain radiate over his body. "Do you really have to ask?" he muttered. "Where's my Raph?"

"He's on his way," Raph said. "Ya need to take these pills Donnie left for ya."

"Where's Don?" Leo asked as he let this Raph prop him up enough for him to see that he was in his own bed in his and Raph's bedroom and to swallow the pain medication.

"Yer Raph has some injuries so Don went to fetch some supplies. He'll be right back."

"Injuries? What kind of injuries?"

"Don't know. Swallow these," he said, handing the pills over followed by a glass of water.

"There was an explosion," Leo said, frowning as he thought back.

"Yeah, apparently I found ya right after," Raph said. He helped lower Leo gently back down to his pillow and settled back cross legged on the bed beside him. "Explosion blew ya over the side of the building. You've got some stitches. In _several_ places, so try not to move too much. And ya kinda look like one big bruise now."

"Thanks," Leo said, mock scowling at Raph.

"Bruises look good on ya," Raph said, grinning back at him.

Leo smiled at the easiness this Raph now had with him. "I take it you found your Leo? Things are going well between you?"

"You bet," Raphael said, still grinning.

"I'm glad, Raph," Leo said. "Do I want to know what you're doing here?"

"Some wolves took my Leo," he replied, frowning. "They wanted to pass him off as _you_ to get their wolfy hands on your foxes. That's what Donnie said anyway when Miwa called in a few minutes ago. Both of our turtles are on their way back now with your kids."

"The wolves got them?" Leo asked frantically as an emerald hand pushed him back down on his shell when he tried to sit up. "Machi is only twelve. What was she doing out there? And we didn't even get a chance to tell Akito to stay home to avoid them."

"Sorry, Fearless, but I didn't get any more of the story once I heard my Leo was on his way here." He took his hand back when it looked like Leo was going to stay down and watched Leo's eyes slide shut. He knew the other Raphael would want to see an awake Leo when he got here so he kept talking to try to keep Leo up. "I met the foxes earlier, when I found you, although I didn't really get to talk to either of them."

Leo's eyes reopened. "They were at the explosion site? They saw me like this?"

"They saw ya a little worse than this to be honest," Raph muttered. "Ya gave me and Donnie a scare. Required a couple pints of yer own blood."

Leo managed to land a hand on Raph's arm. "I'm sorry, Raph. And I'm sorry you guys got dragged into this."

Raph shrugged and rested a hand over Leo's hand, pleased to feel that Leo wasn't as cold as he'd been earlier. "It sounds like me and my Leo managed to help you and yer family. And that's what matters, right? Maybe we're even now after what _you_ did for me and my brothers."

Leo shook his head but knew better than to argue with Raph. He certainly didn't feel like these other brothers owed him anything.

"You guys live in this building now?"

"Yeah we do," Raph said, "although Leo took some convincin."

Leo laughed. "Yeah, yeah I bet he did."

"But once we got Miwa back, she convinced him to start training the Foot ninja she brought back with her. That seemed to help."

Leo chuckled. He was happy to know his counterpart was still able to find some pleasure in teaching even if he didn't have the bunnies and his own kids to train.

"I was definitely surprised to learn you guys have kids here," Raph said. "They were part of the reason you were so sad when you were with us, huh? That whole deal with Halloween?"

Leo smiled sadly and nodded.

"How'd you guys, uh, how'd you manage to -,"

"Adopt?"

"Yeah," Raph said, smiling.

"It's kind of a long story."

"Course it is," Raph said, chuckling again.

"It involves me being turtlenapped into another dimension made up of only talking animals and -,"

"Man, yer a lot of work," Raph said, smirking.

Leo glared lightly back at him. Raphael chuckled again.

"Akito, our eldest, was a student in a class I was teaching and in the end he helped rescue me. And once everything was over, he and his sister were left without a family. So Raph and I happily adopted them."

Raph nodded thoughtfully. He watched Leo's eyes droop shut again. "I bet you make a good dad," he said quietly.

Leo forced his eyes open again to smile over at this other Raph. "Well, I know for a fact that you make an amazing dad." He watched Raphael's thoughtful face. "Talk to Donnie before you leave. He and Sadie adopted a baby turtle from an adoption agency there a couple years ago. Ask Don for that dimension's coordinates." He let his eyes close again. "Just in case."

Raph smiled softly over at Leo again. He finally heard the sound of the apartment's main door opening and a moment later his stomach squirmed as he finally laid his eyes on his own Leo as he helped the injured Raphael into the room.

"Yer in my spot, red," Raph said, although he wasn't really looking at his counterpart, only at his own Leo, whose eyes had popped open at the sound of his voice. "Yer awake," he whispered to Leo as he felt immediate relief.

And Raph's gruff greeting didn't matter because the other Raphael was already jumping up to help with the injured Raphael. The two younger counterparts had barely deposited Raphael onto the bed before their arms found each other in a fierce hug.

"You found me," Leo whispered.

"Well, not you exactly," Raph replied with a smile before he covered Leo's mouth with his own.

Meanwhile, Leo had pushed himself upright in bed and turned to run his hands over Raphael looking for injuries. Raphael batted his hands away as best he could with his one good arm and instead pulled Leo down onto his plastron so he could reach his mouth.

"I'm alright," he murmured to Leo. "You?" He watched Leo's eyes continue to trail over him as he nodded back. He glanced over and smirked as he watched the other Raph and Leo reunite. "Damn, we're cute."

Leo laughed and glanced up at the younger pair as well. "That we are." He leaned down and kissed Raphael again. But he pressed his weight into him this time and jumped back up almost immediately when he heard Raphael actually hiss out in pain.

"Let me see, Raph," Donnie said, entering the bedroom after he'd spent some time examining both Akito and Machi out in the main room. The foxes followed him in and Machi climbed up onto the bed and into Leo's lap while Donnie moved to Raph's side. Akito moved to his dad's side of the bed and happily took the hand that Leo offered up to him to hold.

Leo caught both the kids staring at him and felt immediate guilt knowing that the last time they'd seen him he'd been a bloody, unconscious mess. "I'm good," he whispered over to both of them and was happy when they both visibly relaxed.

Their counterparts moved away from the bed and out of Donnie's way as they watched the happy family reunion. When they reached the other side of the room, Raph looked at his own Leo and wondered what Leo would think about trying to add some little ones to their own family. Casey and April's newborn, Shadow, was currently spoiled rotten being the only child in the clan. He squeezed Leo tighter to his side and smiled when Leo's response was to nuzzle his face into his neck.

Donnie helped push Raph to his side and grimaced as he got a better look at Raph's shell. Raph grimaced as well when he heard Leo gasp as he got a good look at the damage as well.

"I think Mike found what did this when we were looking for you two in the explosion debris earlier," Donnie said as he examined the deep crack in Raph's shell. "You're lucky it didn't run right through you."

"Raphie," Leo whispered harshly as he lightly ran his free hand over the rim of Raph's shell and stared in horror at the crack.

"Not helpin, Don," Raph growled as he watched Leo's face visibly pale.

Donnie ignored him and pulled out the cream he and Sadie had created specifically for cracks in shells. It would help keep bacteria out and was supposed to help the crack heal faster.

"Miwa has the wolves," Raph said, doing his best to take Leo's attention off his injury.

"I put in a call to Usagi to come pick them up after she called with the update," Donnie added.

"Who's Usagi?" the other Leo asked as it wasn't the first time his name had been mentioned in regards to picking up the wolves.

"Don't matter," the injured Raphael said and watched as his own Leo smirked at him. "But," he said suddenly, turning his head to send a pointed stare at the other Leo, "If you see a white rabbit, you run."

Leo wanted to elbow Raphael but thought better of it considering their combined injuries, while the other Leo and Raph exchanged confused glances.

"Have we heard about Woody?" Leo asked quietly as it was now his turn to change the subject.

"Sadie said he's out of surgery, but she hasn't sent any further messages," Donnie said, as he finished with the cream and began to wrap Raph's shell with a bandage. "I'm going to head back over to sit with Mike as soon as I'm finished here."

"What happened to Woody?" the other Leo murmured to his Raph as he realized why Mikey hadn't stuck around earlier after they'd been found.

"I don't know. But did ya see Mikey?"

"Yeah, it's a little freaky to see our baby brother looking older than us, huh?"

Raph chuckled and nodded. "Freaky is the right word."

" _Our_ Mikey and Donnie are okay?"

"Yeah, Fearless. They're just waitin for me to bring ya home. Ya sure yer not hurt? Where have ya been?"

"A warehouse on the north side," Leo said, knowing now where he'd been since he'd had to travel from there to this version of their home. "They kept me in some cell."

"A cell?" Raph growled, tightening his hands around his turtle.

"It's fine, Raphie. I'm not hurt."

"It's not fine," Raph said, as he began to consider heading to the ninja headquarters to kick some wolfie ass.

He was drawn away from his thoughts as he felt a shiver down his spine after Leo's fingers traced over the back of his neck.

"Just take me home," Leo whispered when Raph's green eyes met his. "You can _carefully_ examine me for injuries when we get there."

Raph's green eyes flashed at Leo as he watched his turtle's blue eyes darken.

"Aishiteru, Fearless."

Leo smiled back at him in return. "Love you too, Hothead."

Leo listened with half an ear to the familiar banter between the other Raph and Leo and smiled to himself. He was pleased to know they were together and happy, just as they should be. He glanced down in his lap and found Machi completely asleep. He glanced up at Akito and saw that his son looked completely exhausted as well. He wanted to talk to them about what had happened but now was clearly not the best time. Plus, he was feeling pretty drained himself.

"Akito, please take your sister and put her in bed. Then I want you to get some rest as well, okay?" He wasn't even sure what time of day it was, but Akito only nodded and leaned down to carefully lift Machi and carry her away.

"What's wrong with his arm?" Leo asked, leaning over again to examine Raphael as Donnie placed his left arm into a sling.

"Nothing, really," Donnie said. "But moving his arm is going to cause pain to the shell and it would be better to minimize all movement until it's healed, which means bed rest for you for a while, Raph."

Raph grunted in response and Donnie knew he was going to have to repeat himself later as it looked like Raph was practically asleep. Leo laid himself back down and scooted closer to Raphael, doing his best to press his face into Raph's neck despite the slightly awkward position.

Their counterparts smiled as they stood and watched the two of them fall asleep together.

"We're adorable," the other Leo whispered.

"That we are. I don't know what Donnie's problem is."

"I could give you a bullet-point list," Donnie muttered as he cleaned up his supplies and walked over to this other set of brothers. "Um, I didn't want to spring this on you two," he said, looking carefully at both of them. "But Master Splinter is out in the main room, with my son, Gabriel. I wasn't sure if you'd want to see our father before you left or not."

Hope flared in Leo's eyes as they swung over to meet Raphael's. Raph wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not, but knew already that they were about to do it anyway. He ran a hand down Leo's arm to squeeze his fingers.

* * *

Akito could tell Machi woke up when he lifted her from their dad's lap, but he didn't move to put her on her own feet and she let him carry her to her own room. He set her down on her bed and watched her thoughtfully as she climbed under her blankets. "Your head still hurt?" he asked.

She shook her head no.

"You don't have a T-phone," Akito said after another moment. "How did you find us earlier?"

Machi shrugged. "I just knew where you were."

"How?"

"How did you knock everybody down while standing still on the other side of the room?"

Akito ducked his eyes. "I'm not sure."

"Well, I'm not sure either."

"You were crazy for coming after me," Akito said, doing his best to sound disapproving.

Machi rested her head down on her pillow and shook her head as she yawned and shut her eyes. "Daddy said you once ran through a fiery battle to save my life," she responded simply. "You won't let anyone hurt me and I wasn't going to let anyone hurt you either."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I had to re-read this a few times in order to make sure it wasn't completely confusing with two Leonardos and two Raphaels in the same room. But I'll admit it made me kind of happy to bring this other Raph/Leo pair into this story. Maybe because "Replacement' is one of my favorites (possibly because I got to write two separate Raph/Leo reunions in one story) and I thought it was kind of nice to reunite this Leo with that Raph in a way that allowed them to check in with each other.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's short, but it just doesn't fit into the next part.
> 
> And I have a feeling I'll have people show up with pitchforks if I don't update on Woody soon. He's next. Promise.

Yoshi wasn't nervous often. If he was unsure about something, he simply meditated and it helped clear up any confusion that may have otherwise led to nervous or anxious feelings. Even waiting to hear how Woody's surgery went didn't have him feeling nervous as he had a strong feeling that Woody, who he regarded as another son, was in good and careful hands today.

But he was definitely feeling nervous now. He looked up from the game he was playing with Gabriel as younger versions of his two eldest slowly entered the room.

He took in their wary but hopeful faces as they peered at him and his nerves immediately disappeared as he realized they were feeling similar apprehension at seeing him.

Donatello followed them out and came over to retrieve his son. "You two come down to my lab when you're ready to leave, okay? It'll be fairly easy for me to transport you home."

They nodded in return although they weren't looking at Donnie. He assumed they heard him, though, and quietly left to give them some privacy.

It was the natural order of things for children to outlive their parents, but it pained Yoshi to think that his own counterpart had left these sons when they had still been so young. He waited for a moment, using his own silence to allow them to guide the meeting. And he wasn't at all surprised when his most emotional son, _although he'd never say that out loud to Raphael,_ was the first to make a move.

Raphael surged forward and wrapped his arms around this version of his father and buried his face into the familiar robe. Yoshi quickly returned the hug and concentrated on it for a moment before he lifted his eyes to Leonardo. His blue-clad son's eyes were wide and Yoshi was concerned to see that they were full of fear and regret.

"I let you down," Leo said, quickly, his voice full of emotion. "You counted on me to take care of everyone and I didn't. I left." Leo swallowed. "I ran away. I'm so sorry."

Raphael pulled away from their father with a heavy sigh. He'd been working hard to banish these thoughts from Leo's brain for the past five years. But so far, Raphael's persuasion techniques were no match for Leo's incredible ability to hold onto guilt with a goddamn iron fist. He turned to Leo, but was stopped by a gentle hand on his shoulder as his father held him in place and turned himself to Leo instead.

Yoshi pulled Leonardo into a hug, which Leo didn't hesitate to return.

"You could never let me down, Leonardo," he said and felt Leonardo immediately tense. Leonardo, who took the weight of the family on his own shoulders, was going to take some convincing. "I will tell you what I told Miwa when she returned to us from Japan," he said. "You took the path you were meant to take. And what matters is that you returned when you were supposed to return." He paused for a moment and waited until he felt Leonardo physically relax. "I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of all of you." He raised his eyes back to Raphael. He released Leonardo and watched as Raphael reached forward and pulled one of Leonardo's hands into his own.

Relief rolled through Leonardo. He was almost shaky with it. Their father wasn't disappointed in him. He let that thought roll around in his head for another moment. He grieved for their father often, but that grief was always tinged with the pangs of guilt that came with knowing he'd failed as a leader, and had therefore failed their father, by running away. He loved Raph for trying to dissuade of him the guilty feelings, but his only real salvation was going to come from their father, which was something he had assumed was going to be forever unattainable.

"You are a natural leader and sensei, Leonardo," Yoshi said, tilting his head as he watched the emotions run across Leonardo's face. He turned back to Raphael and rested a hand on his shoulder as well. "And, Raphael, you're not only an impressive second-in-command, but you and April and Casey have made a very successful team in the Hamato-Jones garage."

"You've seen the garage?" Raph asked. He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "Well, yeah, of course you would've seen it here," he said sheepishly.

"It was the first time I'd seen the Hamato name on an establishment," Yoshi said, smiling at him. "It was quite a thrill."

Raph grinned back at him before ducking his head.

"Just as I am proud of Michelangelo's focus and dedication with his food truck, of Miwa for her own return and commitment to this family and for the recognition Donatello finally earned for his creations, plus his ingenuity to create this place and allow us to all stay together while he continues to do the work he loves."

"Thank you," Leo said, sincerely as he squeezed Raph's hand. "And we'll tell the others when we return, although I wish they were here to hear it from you directly."

Yoshi reached up and ran a hand down the length of his beard. He glanced towards the bedroom where his injured sons were resting and thought of Woody in the hospital.

"We have some serious health concerns in this family right now. But when all are well again, I see no harm in traveling to you for a visit. And then I will tell your siblings myself."

"Really?" Raphael asked, perking up. He felt Leo physically relax beside him. They weren't about to say goodbye to their father all over again after all. Not if there was hope that they would see him again.

Yoshi nodded. "Come," he said, "I'll walk you down to Donatello's lab so you can go home. I'm sure your family is anxiously waiting for your return."

Leo nodded in return with a growing smile. There'd been so many times in the past seven years when he'd desperately wanted his father's council and this visit alone had already been such a gift. It was almost too much to think that their father would return to them in such a way.

They took the elevator down to Donnie's lab and laughed when they found him trying to show his small turtle son something through a microscope.

They said goodbye to their father, albeit a much less emotional goodbye than it would've been if there hadn't been a promise to see each other again in the future.

When they were gone, Yoshi picked little Gabriel up into his arms for a hug. He loved all of his grandchildren, but there was something special about being able to hold a small turtle tot again.

He turned to his tall son. "Donatello," he said, "you've been going non-stop for this family for the past several days and I want you to know how proud I am of you for what you do for all of us. It does not go unnoticed by anyone."

Donnie paused and stared at his father for a split second before he smiled simply and said, "Thanks, Dad."

Yoshi nodded. "Now, I think you should take Gabriel home and relax with him for a while. I will go and sit with Michelangelo."


	19. Chapter 19

"You make a really cute nurse, Mike," Woody murmured as he pulled himself out of his drug-induced morning nap.

His surgery had gone smoothly, although his doctor had decided to have him spend a day in the ICU for recovery before he was moved back to his own room. He didn't have any memory of that day in the ICU. So when he woke up again in his own hospital room, he didn't know that it had been over two days since Mikey had seen him and he'd been confused to find a shaking Michelangelo wrapped around his body in that tiny bed. When he realized what Mikey had gone through, Woody turned into a star recovery patient and talked the doctor into letting him come home a few days earlier than originally planned. And he had been allowed to leave the hospital yesterday, although he was still heavily medicated and had spent most of his time home asleep.

But it didn't matter, because every time he managed to open his eyes, his freckled turtle was there by his side.

"I made you lunch," Mikey said with a smile. He helped Woody sit up and propped extra pillows behind him, taking the opportunity to examine the bandages wrapped around Woody's head. Some blonde curls were trying to escape out the edges, but the bandages still looked like they were in the right place, despite Woody sleeping on them.

He placed a tray of food in Woody's lap before sitting on the edge of their bed by Woody's feet. He was supposed to keep the food soft and easy to digest, but he'd still added some of Woody's favorite spices to the pasta sauce.

"I missed your cooking as much as I missed you, Mike," Woody said as he groggily looked down at the food. "Do you know what the spaghetti was like at the hospital?"

"Don't say it," Mikey said, although he was having a hard time keeping a smile from spreading across his face.

"Im _pasta_ s," Woody said anyway with his own wide grin.

"I swear I will hunt Franklin down and kick his ass if this is what he left behind for your sense of humor," Mikey said with a loud chuckle. It felt good to laugh. It loosened the tightness in his chest.

"You have a gazillion watt smile, Mikester,"

"Just for you, Woody."

Woody watched Mikey for a moment. He'd managed to get Mike to laugh, but there was still something present in those big round eyes that Woody didn't like. He decided to take a guess.

"I understand you had some excitement while I was in surgery."

Mikey ducked his eyes.

 _Bingo_ , Woody thought.

"I'm sorry, Woodrow. I told you I'd stay at my post. And I didn't."

"Well, I didn't want you disappearing into another _dimension_ again, Mike, but do you have any idea how disappointed I would have been if you had just sat out there doing nothing instead of jumping in to help save our family?" He paused and watched Mikey's face. "I'm the one who's sorry, Michelangelo," he finally said. "I didn't mean for this to get so complicated. I know the past couple weeks have been hell on you."

"They weren't a picnic for you either, Woods," Mikey said, elbowing Woody's closest foot. "And I told you I'll always want to be with you, no matter how complicated this gets. And I meant it."

Woody watched the guilt leave Mikey's eyes as a seriousness replaced it. "I meant it too," he said, quietly with a smile. He picked up his fork but paused again before saying, "I'm also sorry about our food truck. I'm not allowed to drive for a while. And we're going to lose all those great spots we worked so hard to earn."

"One, no more apologies from you, dude" Mikey said, pointing a green finger at Woody. "You pulled through this, which is what I asked you to do. And B, don't worry about our food truck route. I'm taking care of it."

"Did someone volunteer to drive you?"

"Yes, but our family members all have their own lives to get back to. Plus, I'm not leaving your side, which means I'm not about to run out for the lunch and dinner shifts."

"So?"

"So I hired some college kids to run the route."

"What?"

"I worked it all out. I'll do the food prep in the morning and load the truck. Miwa volunteered to move the truck to the sidewalk and leave the keys with Sam before lunch. The kids will pick the keys up from Sam and take the truck out for lunch and dinner. Then they'll park it back outside our building at the end of the day, drop the keys in the drop box and Casey will move it back underground every night."

Woody grinned. "That's brilliant, Mike."

Mikey nodded. "So don't worry your pretty busted head about it."

Woody laughed again before scooping up some of the pasta noodles into his mouth.

Mikey smiled as he watched him eat. "Taste okay?"

"It's im _pasta_ ble for this to be any more delicious, Mikester."

Mikey groaned and fell back on his shell on the bed next to Woody. "What did Franklin do to you?"

"Oh come on," Woody said, nudging Mikey's arm with his foot. "That was a good one!"

* * *

Raphael was uncomfortable. He hated sleeping on his side. It hurt his shoulder. The only free arm he had was the one he was stuck laying on and it kept falling asleep. And to add insult to injury, he couldn't pull Leo into his side.

Although, to Leo's credit, he was doing his best to press his body as closely to Raph's plastron as he could get.

Raph sighed and let his eyes roam over Leonardo. He was still angry that he'd been useless when that explosion had blown Leo off the rooftop. Leo was still sore and covered in bruises and stitches but he seemed to be healing quickly.

Raph growled lightly when his left hand tried to jerk forward to touch Leo but was stopped by the sling. Although, he wouldn't really call it a sling considering Donnie had really just tied his arm down against his plastron. He decided to just focus on the fact that Leo was safely in bed with him. He didn't want to wake him, but he began to whisper, "I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been*."

"Lucky to be coming home again," Leo whispered back with his face still tucked into Raphael.

Raph's eyes widened in surprise as half his mouth lifted in a grin. "Ya don't listen to the radio, Fearless," he whispered.

Leo smiled to himself as he shifted closer to Raphael's warm body. He let his fingers lazily trace over the grooves in Raph's golden plastron. "No, but I do listen to you sing in the shower."

Raph huffed out a laugh before softly saying, "Aishiteru." He watched Leo finally lift his face up so he could see him and he smiled again when he saw the dorky grin.

Donnie checked on them often and had kept them updated on Woody's progress as he doled out their medications and changed their bandages. And they knew their kids were being watched over by the rest of the family, which allowed them to rest and spend the past several days just sleeping in bed.

And now that it seemed like they were both awake at the same time, Raph's thoughts returned to what he'd witnessed concerning their foxes.

"We need to talk about the kids," Raph said.

"You mean discuss how and why they ended up in the hands of the wolves?"

"Sort of," Raph said. "Remember how you talked about their birth mom's family and their supposed special abilities?"

Leo's eyes narrowed. "Yes."

"I think it's the real deal."

"What'd I miss?"

Raph paused for a moment, trying to decide how to describe what he'd seen. "Leo, Akito knocked down everyone in the room, includin me and the other Leo, by shootin some kind of energy or somethin out of his hands. I know that sounds crazy, but the kid was a walking pulse blaster. Everyone went down. Everyone but Machi."

"It even knocked you down?" Leo asked with half a smirk.

Raph stared at him. "I tell you our son projected some crazy-ass energy across a room and that's yer response?"

Leo's smirk grew.

"And, hey, I could barely stand as it was with this stupid crack." He resisted the urge to move his trapped arm again to give Leo a nudge, especially in light of Leo's smile.

"So it doesn't work on his sister," Leo said thoughtfully.

Raph's eyes ran over Leo's face again. "Yer just acceptin this? Ya don't think maybe somethin else knocked everyone down?"

"We'll talk to him about it," Leo said, "but if you say he did it, then I believe you." He watched Raph's eyes soften as they continued to scan over his face. "What about Machi?"

"Well, Machi came and told me it was time to go get ya out of that turtle world right before the machine's alarm went off. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now I wonder if she's seein things before they happen. I don't know."

"We'll talk to both of them," Leo said as he considered the things Raph had seen. He continued to trail his fingers over Raphael's plastron. "Have I ever told you that I think you're an amazing father?"

Raph's eyes narrowed in on Leo's face. "Are ya tryin to sweet talk me, Leo?"

"No," Leo said, although the smile on his face said otherwise to Raph.

Raph watched as Leo's fingers trailed over his plastron. "Yer teasin me with yer fingers," he whispered.

"It would be inappropriate to tease you right now," Leo said, although his fingers continued to trace over the scars he'd long ago memorized on Raph's plastron.

"Come here," Raph said, as he once again cursed his good arm for being trapped under him.

But Leo was more than happy to oblige and he shifted himself further up the bed until his mouth could easily reach Raphael's mouth. He did what Raph couldn't do and used his own hands to pull Raphael's face closer to him.

"Leo," Raph groaned. He shifted his hips towards Leo and was happy that the movement didn't affect his shell. He hadn't done a lot of experimenting with what he could or couldn't do without pain over the past few days. He wrapped a leg around Leo's legs and tried to pull him closer.

"You want me to take advantage of you while you're injured?" Leo murmured, as he rubbed his lower plastron against Raphael before he could stop himself.

"Jeezus," Raph moaned at the scrape of their lower plastrons. "Yes, Fearless."

Leo pressed his mouth to Raph's again and happily focused on the way Raph's lips moved as he heard a churr from the emerald turtle. He felt a churr rise up his own throat in response.

"I'm pretty sure you don't believe in this kind of activity while injured," Leo murmured to him.

"That's a blatant lie," Raph growled and he shifted himself so he could get his good arm out enough to grab the back of Leo's neck.

Unfortunately he couldn't hide the grimace the movement caused and Leo pulled himself away in order to push himself up into a sitting position. He eyed Raphael for a moment and then ignored Raph's protests as he slowly moved himself off their bed. He went to their closet and pulled down all of their extra pillows before moving back to the bed. He arranged the pillows under Raphael to allow his emerald turtle to finally lie back safely on his shell.

Raphael let his eyes slide shut and groaned out in relief to be off his damn shoulder.

Leo grinned as he watched Raph happily stretch himself out on the nest of pillows. "Well, if that's all you needed-,"

Raph's good arm shot forward and gripped the back of Leo's neck again in order to pull his face down. Leo allowed it, but his arms shot out on either side of the emerald turtle to keep his weight away from Raph's injured shell. Raph watched as Leo hesitated and then slowly lowered himself to sit and straddle Raph's waist. He smiled reassuringly up at Leo to let him know the weight didn't bother his shell's injury.

Leo continued to hold his upper body up on his arms but leaned back down to cover Raph's mouth with his own again. He felt Raph's thumb move gently back and forth against his neck as he moved to press kisses to Raph's jawline before ducking his face into his emerald neck.

Raph felt Leo's teeth scrape across his skin and he groaned out in appreciation once again. He turned his head and caught sight of Leo's shoulder bandage, which was currently bunching up in a way that would make Donnie frown considering the stitches it was covering.

"Yer not hurtin yer stitches are ya?" he murmured. He felt Leo pull his mouth away and then sit back up on his lap to eye him.

"I told you that you didn't condone certain activities while injured," Leo said with a smug smile. He could see Raphael gearing up to argue with him and quickly rubbed his lower plastron against Raphael and watched those green eyes spark at him in response. He lifted himself off Raphael and turned his body so that he could lie back down on the bed on his good shoulder. He used Raph's lower plastron for a pillow and grinned up at Raph, knowing Raph wouldn't be able to complain if he was resting in bed again.

Raph felt his own breathing quicken as he watched Leo's tongue reach out and slide up his slit. "Leo," he managed after a few moments, "yer sure that -," he released another groan as Leo's tongue became more insistent and immediately released himself to Leo's waiting mouth. "Alright, Fearless," he said, although the words were almost swallowed by a loud churr. He used his good arm to grab one of Leo's legs and pull his lower body closer so that his fingers could tease over Leo's slit in return.

Leo didn't hesitate to drop down for Raph's hand and released his own moan, letting the sound vibrate around Raphael. He felt Raph's grip tighten in response before his thumb massaged over the tip and Leo jerked his hips towards those clever emerald fingers. He breathed in Raph's scent and pressed Raph to the roof of his mouth as he released a churr as Raphael began to repeat the movement he knew Leo liked so much.

He moaned out Leo's name only a moment before he reached his release in Leo's warm mouth. The hand that had been stroking Leo froze as he did his best not to move his shell with his convulsions. He groaned out Leo's name again as he felt Leo release him and heard Leo gasp as his hand quickly went back to work over Leo's still hard length. He watched Leo's face scrunch in pleasure before Raph's well practiced fingers pulled him into his release as well.

Leo panted and remained sprawled out across Raph's lower plastron for a few moments until he felt Raph poke him.

"I can't pull you up here. Yer gonna have to do it."

Leo nodded and eventually found the motivation to move his body so that he was lying next to Raphael again.

"I'm not gonna be able to sleep like this," Raph said, eyeing the distance between them.

Leo agreed, but was worried about causing further damage to Raph's shell injury. He gingerly moved forward and pressed himself into Raph's side. Raph's free arm moved around him and forced him even closer. He studied Raph's reaction to their new positions and when the closeness didn't seem to bother him, he tucked his face into Raph's neck.

"I am lucky to be in love with my best friend," Raph murmured to him.

"You're talking about me, right?" Leo whispered, hiding his grin in Raph's neck.

Raph growled lightly at him.

"I love you, Raphael. I always have. And I always will."

Raph squeezed Leo's shell and settled further into his pillow nest. He listened to Leo's breathing settle into sleep and then closed his own eyes for sleep as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Jason Mraz & Colbie Calillat – "Lucky"
> 
> A/N: The end. There's one more big story in this series - "Discoveries"


End file.
